Need to know how to install rear struts on 1995 jaguar xj6
Hi Michael,You need a pair of good coil spring compressors about 10 inches long that are reasonably slimline and robust enough to hold the power of the spring, trolley jack, axle stands, sockets and spanners to fit the nuts and bolts and half a dozen tie wraps, 4 inches of longer.Jack up and support the rear of the car (if you have access to a wheels free ramp so much the better) remove both rear wheels.Using the compressors compress the spring until you can squash it down to about 2/3rdsof its length, it will then rotate and move freely, once that is the case you have compressed it enough..Then, and only then, undo the bottom shocker bolt, the one through the lower swing arm and remove the bolt.Using a 1/2 inch 13mm socket and whatever extensions and wobble drives you need to achieve it, remove the 4 nuts/ (some have 4 bolts ) from the top shocker plate (directly at the top of the shocker ) releasing it from it's mounting point, once these 4 are out this will allow you to maneuver the whole assembly, spring shocker and top plate, out through the gap between the hub and the wheel arch, most can be got out without removing anything else, but occasionally I have had to remove the brake caliper to make enough room, and only once I had to take out the lower hub bolt (if you have to do this be sure to dot punch 2 marks on the disc around the head of the bolt which has graduations marked on it for rear wheel alignment, and on the hub directly adjacent to the mark you made of the head of the bolt, when reassembling you simply line up the 2 dots and your rear wheel will be back where it was before you took the bolt out.Once you have the shocker and spring assembly out, slide the shocker out and replace it by removing the top nut through the top plate.once done, use tie wraps to fasten the top plate to the top of the spring (makes handling it a bit easier, and reverse the removal procedure.Most important thins when reassembling to remember, DO NOT remove the spring compressors until you have reassembled the top plate back in its mounting and re fitted the bottom shocker bolt.Why Jaguar decided to adopt this stupid way to fit a rear spring is beyond me ! Probably to stop people from being able to change their own parts !!The XJ40's were self contained and Much easier to remove as a whole unit ! Source, self after 20 years of working on nothing but Jaguars.best regardsTim