Back in October at the South Carolina Jaguar Club Concours I was chatting with George Camp about projects I had planned for my car. George told me about the JCNA tool loan program and how to look up the available tools online.

I'm sure we have all wondered about these tools when the service manual calls for "insert special tool JD.xxxx" and I know many of us have made our own to get a job done. But let me just say that there is a reason Jaguar made these tools and that is it makes life a LOT easier when doing certain maintenance tasks!!

Case in point, over the holidays I decided to replace all the suspension bushes front and rear on my 95 XJ6 and 94 XJS. After a quick phone consultation with George, I simply located all the tools in the online catalog and filled out the request form. Easy Peasy! Within a day the tools were on their way to me and I received them two days later. Great service!

The press tools for removing/inserting bushes fit perfectly and made re-bushing a snap. No more hunting around for the right size socket or worrying about damaging the bore etc. Within one hour, I had replaced all the bushings on the front suspensions of both cars!

Things were even easier on the rear, no more struggling to get out the 'A' frame or radius arm bushes, the right tools made light work of both.

The fact that these tools are available to the membership free of charge (apart from covering the modest cost of shipping) is, in my view, a tremendous and most valuable perk of club membership.

Next time you see a special tool required for a job you are undertaking, do yourself a favour and use the tool loan program and get to enjoy driving your Jag with a lot less work!!

Cheers,

Allan

Submitted by SE98-32482CJ on Fri, 01/17/2014 - 10:02

It works the same way. In your case the only issue I see is your mailing address is a PO box which JCNA (UPS) will not ship to. There may be additional charges for Canadian customs but so far the tools that have been sent to Canada did not incur them so it seems to be hit and miss. Bob did you read the "How the program works" on the tool loan page? If that does not answer all of your questions you may always call 888-258-2524 ex #3.

Submitted by SE98-32482CJ on Wed, 01/15/2014 - 17:55

Allan kind words and I wish I could accept them myself--but I can't. Behind the tool loan program was a lot of work by our JCNA council Rob Thuss and our business manager Gary Kincel. To gear heads like myself and Dick Maury it was simply a bit of inventory. This was a true JCNA effort and I want all to know that the effort to have this approved by our carrier and make sure that the club was in a good legal position was intense. So use the tools and enjoy the ease they make jobs but please remember the others who made this possible.