I suppose I'll drop by the store and have them pull a shock and measure the dang thing. By the way,I had already "washered' the stop to the limit of the bump stop stud, but it would be easy to weld on an extension on the stud (being careful not to melt the rubber). Otherwise, if I ever hit a bump hard enough to bottom out,  I surely would be angry with mysellf for not hitting the brakes first...hahaha

Also, I'm considering buying an Arnott compressor and piping it in to a pair of air shocks if I can find some with the correct travel/length with a manual switch to adjust the height/ride "on the run"...

By the way, if you look at this picture, you can see the spacers i already installed...Thanks again for your thoughts.

http://s28.photobucket.com/user/PaulGerdes/media/49%20Ford%20Coupe%20Start%20Mid%20May%202011/Prepping%20the%20Body/DSC01593-Copy2_zpse7df7f16.jpg.html?sort=6&o=14

HOLY COW ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! 

Thanks guys.... and especially IRSTANG !..

Here is the latest. This is the "building the frame" sub-album of the Coupe Build.. the next sequence is "prepping for engine" sub-album you can check out the other sub-albums - the latest is the "prepping the body".
http://s28.photobucket.com/user/PaulGerdes/library/49%20Ford%20Coupe%20Start%20Mid%20May%202011/Building%20the%20Frame?sort=6&page=4

Prepping of Engine - best pics of finalized IRS installed
http://s28.photobucket.com/user/PaulGerdes/library/49%20Ford%20Coupe%20Start%20Mid%20May%202011/Building%20the%20Frame?sort=6&page=4

Prepping the body
http://s28.photobucket.com/user/PaulGerdes/library/49%20Ford%20Coupe%20Start%20Mid%20May%202011/Prepping%20the%20Body?sort=6&page=1

And... Rebuilding the Jag rear end
http://s28.photobucket.com/user/PaulGerdes/library/49%20Ford%20Coupe%20Start%20Mid%20May%202011/Rebuilding%20the%20JAGUAR%20rear%20end?sort=6&page=1

But we surely can't ignore "building the engine"
http://s28.photobucket.com/user/PaulGerdes/library/49%20Ford%20Coupe%20Start%20Mid%20May%202011/Engine%20Build?sort=6&page=1

Looks like rain for the next couple of days..
 

Thanks, Daze...

No, there is absolutely no binding.Keep in mind that the angular rotation about the centerline is a relatively small angle. As a matter of fact, I thought the same thing about the configuration However, when I would mount the "frame end" of the arms to the bracket, I could move the LCA end around quite easily, a couple of inches in any direction. There is enough flexiblity in the bushings to have negligible effect on the forces required to move the LCA up and down. Did you see the short video of the bump stop design?

All the bushings and arms came from Snow White. I will be posting more pics in the next couple of days showing how I cut out part of the old sheetmetal housing for additional LCA, rear pivot support.

Thanks for checking my "stuff" out !!!.

Here is the link to my photobucket picture albums. Be sure to search out the sub-albums, too. 
http://s28.photobucket.com/albums/c231/PaulGerdes/49%20Ford%20Coupe%20Start%20Mid%20May%202011/

and the Jag sub album is:
http://s28.photobucket.com/albums/c231/PaulGerdes/49%20Ford%20Coupe%20Start%20Mid%20May%202011/Rebuilding%20the%20JAGUAR%20rear%20end/
 

Hey, guys...

Well, yesterday afternoon at 5:45, I  mounted the tires and let my baby down on the ground. Of course, I was more than excited, anticipating the first time I could jump up and down on the frame to experience the lovely bounce of my Jag install.

Special thanks goes to Curt Hamilton and the guys at Snow White in securing the parts that I chose to incorporate into my build. It all turned out perfectly as I had anticipated.

The picture albums are on Photobucket. Recently they redesigned the website format which I don't especially like, but you should be able to "switch back" to the old format, so that you can read the descriptions without an additional mouse click.

The first link here takes you to the "Jag rebuild" sub-album, which mainly has only pictures related to the Jag, while the other sub-albums are applicable to the other chores in the build.

The second link is the main link to the 'parent' album.

Enjoy.

http://s28.photobucket.com/albums/c231/PaulGerdes/49%20Ford%20Coupe%20Start%20Mid%20May%202011/Rebuilding%20the%20JAGUAR%20rear%20end/

http://s28.photobucket.com/albums/c231/PaulGerdes/49%20Ford%20Coupe%20Start%20Mid%20May%202011/

Hey guys..

Got everything apart, cleaned, etc., new bearings, seals, caliper kit, pistons, etc.

Everything going back together just fine until I started to assemble the inside stub shafts. The crush sleeve that was in the kit looks like a straight cylinder, with no "give groove" like the one that came out of the original.

I got the races pressed in and the seal in place and pressed the inside race down to about 1/8" (play on the bearings), then put the big nut on with the "keeper" and started torquing it down. Well, I busted my rather large vice clear off my work table, using a 4' cheater bar on the dang thing.

Since this is my "first", can ya'll just confirm that it takes LOOOTS of torque to pull it the bearing in, and whether the crush ring that is just a simple cylinder will "crush" ??? I stopped when the vice came loose, and am searching for a socket I can cut in two and weld a piece of pipe to extend it to get over the stub shaft..

Thanks, ya'll..

Paul

THANKS, Stang !

Thanks, Stang... I fully get the "centers of rotation" theory of the control arms.... but I got the thinkin'.......... was the original design in error? What were the engineers thinking when they chose the "straight ahead" swing arm design? Was the design a compromise in "where to bolt the static ends"? Were the engineers stupid?   I have to think, given the fact that the entire system is rather incredible and cool, that they thought it through fairly well. After all, do Jag rear end components have a habit of failure in the control arms / needle bearings/pivot points? I can't say, because I don't have much/any experience on a day to day or even year to year basis.  They chose needle bearings, I'm guessing for a very specific reason rather than bushings on the LCA's , and I'm just guessing they wanted ZERO lateral/radial movement of the LCA's and high strength at the same time. So they probably wanted no compromising of the "line of travel" of the LCA's. So, at least theoretically, the dang LCA's are GOING to stay in line with design line of travel, while the control arms are allowed to "give" a little back and forth, and in a twisting motion also.

Drag out your Trig tables, and follow me on this...

So here's what I'm thinkin'........Starting off with all links exactly level. Let's assume that the control arms are 20" long, and that you hit a bump that causes the wheel/tire assembly to bounce a TRUE 2" from the static condition. If you have a "true" 2" bounce, then given the dynamics of what the car does, the actual "bump" might be twice that amount, because the frame starts moving up immediately, absorbing the energy of the "bounce".

That means that with a 20" control arm, the tire end of the control arm will tend to want to move forward an amount equal to the difference between the Tangent and the Sine of about 5 degrees, or a maximum of 0.20 inches (roughly). That's theoretical if all parts are rigid. But studying the fixed end bushing of the control arm bush

Well, Stang... It would seem that the original control arms are good, they have good bushings, but I've not seen exactly how they mount on a Jag.. will peruse your link and perhaps they will have something........Hell, I DID see that the control arm bushings are something like 300 bucks somewhere a few weeks ago..

It appears that I "could" place some alternate hole locations by cutting out the upper shock mounts and weld in a multi-hole bracket. Just thought of something else...

I've seen/read about buying/adding/modifying the disks for vented disks, adding a spacer in the calipers, etc. and also saw a guy that makes an adapter somewhere.. I saved the link somewhere.. Am looking into "maybe" measuring out a Chevy front disk to machine it with adapter if necessary to use instead of the stock "scorcher" disks.. that should require making the cut on the axles shorter by the difference in the mounting thickness of the different disks... am I thinkin' right?  Got the differential out of the cage last night.. pretty dang easy, actually... will be pulling the brakes off as soon as I get my registration numbers on the boat....ahahaha

I noticed a couple of things while pulling it apart... is there some info somewhere that defines the required shim thickness on the axle mounts? Not sure how they relate.. wouldn't seem that shims would be an issue/required there.. gotta do some more thinkin' I guess.. also, what the heck is the little "bushed" mounting bracket under the top and near the diff.? is it for a "service bracket" or something to drop the assembly out of the vehicle?

Thanks again for your attention..

Paul

Testing a feature of putting images here....

Oh, hell, never mind. I am NOT drunk.... the above pose is BS..... for narrowing the cage, one would cut INSIDE the shock mounts to keep the geometry "approximately" the same, not outside the shock mount...and there is plenty of room to cut the cage there...

So the question sorta still stands.. "what is wrong with narrowing the cage" ??????

Hey, guys, I just noticed something..

It appears that a person can/could narrow the cage by a maximum of 3.5" on each side and still use the mounting configuration as Jag designed it without disturbing ANYTHING relative to the hardware except the ends of the cage.  It surely would be easy to carefully cut out between the shock mount and the "reinforced end plate", move it in, and reweld it (with a little more support, with a couple of plates). I'm not "HOT" on building/buying/modifying anymore than I have to just so that when/if anybody sticks their head under my rear bumper has some sort of orgasm over how beautiful/lovely my rear end is. It's going to be rather low anyway... so this morning I was getting ready to pull the other axle and I noticed that there is some "meat" to the outside of the cage shock mount.

[img]http://s28.photobucket.com/albums/c231/PaulGerdes/49%20Ford%20Coupe%20Start%20Mid%20May%202011/?action=view&current=DSC01019.jpg[img/]

And I surely don't know why, but I've not seen a smidgen of any pictures or discussion about using the cage rather than "start all over" with mounting...

What do ya'll think?

Great info, Stang ! ! !

So, to get specific, what IS the nominal spring rate for a quad spring/shock combo for an XKS ?  By the way, with your guidance and Daze's postings, I'm  going to try to locate a driveshaft/machine shop in the Austin area this week to cut down my Jag IRS. This afternoon, I mounted my tires and took "final" measurements to get the wheel/tires to fit under the '49. It looks like I'll be cutting out about 4" from each side... ... I surely like the idea of moving the shock mounts out as far as possible. By the way, does anybody have any idea of nominal ass end weight of a '49 Ford Coupe?   Will take a shot at the math as you've posted it..

And thanks .......

Well, guys, I took all measurements for the two front a-arms relative to the frame, and drew the arms in 3D in AutoCad, and as I rotate/orbit the image, DANG it does not make sense... the axis of rotation of the two arms differ by 27 degrees in plan view (x/y) only and about 10 to 15 degrees difference between the axis of the upper and lower control arm when viewed perpendicular to the Z axis.

I have NO idea, until and unless I learn a LOT more about AutoCad, how to translate this into a center of roll or roll axis... hell, it took me two hours to get it drawn up as it is.........ahahaha