Taking rear subframe off

[Doublefacy]

Hi,

My supra recently failed MOT and it says it has movement in upper rear control arm bushes. Since control arm itself is quite expensive, i decided to polybush whole rear suspension. I tried to remove the suspension parts and not much luck as bolts are properly seized and not easy to access and wouldnt want to damage something in process, plus upper control arm bolts are hard to access as they are. So i decided to remove whole subframe, get good access to all bolts - being able to use impact gun, or knock on a bolt with hammer to brake it loose. Also my suspension parts are bit rusty, car itself is undersealed and all good, but suspension and even subframe top side are quite rusty. So i wanted to wirebrush them all, rust treat them and respray them.

My question in order to remove subframe completely - not just lower, I need to disconnect abs sensor and handbrake cable and obviously propshaft and remove exhaust. Where can i disconnect abs sensors, is it next to sensor itself or further down the cable under the car?

I havent jacked up high enough yet to go under the car, I don't see any plugs nearby sensor- seems like cable just goes right in the sensor. I would not want to try to remove sensor cause i read they dont come out easy and if you break one they cost like £200 a piece.

Also with handbrake cable, i saw video on youtube where someone had it already off and it looked like he disconnected them at T junction rather than at hub, cause i undid the bolts and that harder part of dust guard that holds hanbrake shoes in place is kind of in a way to get it out, wouldn't want to start bending it a bit if it can be disconnected easy further down the cable.

Thank you.

[blythmrk]

The abs connectors are inside the car at the back of the rear plastics behind the speakers (I managed to get to mine just with the boot plastics removed but it’s very tight!)

Above the prop around the centre of the car you are correct you can disconnect the handbrake there

[Doublefacy]

Arrrghhhh, I hoped for easy access

Should have done this when i installed my new speakers and had all plastics off.  I wished supra had them as easy as it is for my old golf where cable plugs in sensor.
 
Are they going through the grommet in the boot ? How do i identify without getting under car checking where they go inside.
Cause I rather unplug them before i jack up the car. Not a fan of getting in car while on axle stands.

Thank you

[ballsdeep]

I can’t help but I hope you plan on taking pictures I’m hoping to drop my subframe soon. 

[Doublefacy]

I will take pictures and post them, once its all done.  At the moment I just got brake disks and callipers off - might put new disks on , resprayed callipers, but since rubber boot is in good condition and piston moves freely pressing with fingers, i will not refurbish them. I did refurbish front calipers, cause rubber was split. 

Will change hanbrake shoes as it took 2h to get brake disk off cause was catching on old worn out shoe (hanbrake released obviously) and ended up wd40 whole thing through the gaps in order to slide the disk off off.
Obviously I haven't work on supra much so far and might not know trick of how better.

I just wanted to take off as much as possible to leave subframe as light as i can , to have less struggle to handle it.
 

[chaoticentity]

15 minutes ago, Doublefacy said:

Arrrghhhh, I hoped for easy access

Should have done this when i installed my new speakers and had all plastics off.  I wished supra had them as easy as it is for my old golf where cable plugs in sensor.
 
Are they going through the grommet in the boot ? How do i identify without getting under car checking where they go inside.
Cause I rather unplug them before i jack up the car. Not a fan of getting in car while on axle stands.

Thank you

The two grey clips here are the abs sensors, the grommets are below the polystyrene foam/subwoofer holder. AFAIK on jap cars these will be the only two grommets in that area under the car, but I haven’t been under that area so can’t be certain

[bradleyh_15]

33 minutes ago, ballsdeep said:

I can’t help but I hope you plan on taking pictures I’m hoping to drop my subframe soon. 

What pictures you need? I maybe able to help as Iv done a full strip down and rebuild and the subframes are back in

[tayr]

1 hour ago, blythmrk said:

The abs connectors are inside the car at the back of the rear plastics behind the speakers (I managed to get to mine just with the boot plastics removed but it’s very tight!)

Above the prop around the centre of the car you are correct you can disconnect the handbrake there

Maybe that explains my abs light coming on as I was unplugging stuff behind the speaker hmm

[Doublefacy]

Today I checked abs sensor plugs and actually its not too bad to access them.
I messed up my finger the other day working with impact gun, so today i decided to give another day to heal. Tomorrow planning to take it all off.

There is quite some space to go in with one hand and unplugging clip is straight forward - just press down on plastic retainer and it slides out. 
Like @chaoticentity  posted pictures - all you need is to take off plastics at the back - comes on 3 screws and plastic clip. dead easy  to access. Unplug the clip and press out grommet to feed the cable out under car.

Will try to take as many pics as possible tomorrow of whole process and put them here

[Doublefacy]

So today I managed to remove rear subframe on my driveway (sorry for messy driveway  ). Probably could have taken more pictures, but not having bought gloves, my hands were quite dirty at all times
Will try to describe the process. 

First, obviously, loosen your wheel nuts and jack up the car. I did not jack it up too high, on base level of axle stand about where chassis main under rail ends, which is high enough, if you lift higher you might need high jack to support subframe when unbolted.

Then I removed brake disks and calipers, since they need to be disconnected from brakes lines. Once you disconnect brake lines, they do not interfere in further process of removal. To prevent braking fluid or oil to leak, you can use clamps or if remove caliper and there is nothing in between pistons, you press brake pedal all the way to floor and lock it in there with some bar against seat, so it stayed fully pressed in, then it should not leak anything as well. I had one clamp that i used on one side and used the pedal trick on other side. Clamps are potentially not good for brake lines.

Then you need to remove exhaust. I got aftermarket exhaust - it bolts on with 2 bolts in center section, so it was pretty easy for me.


Once exhaust is out off the way, we need to disconnect propshaft. That will also give us better access to handbrake cable junction.
I haven't done this before so don't know if shaft could have been pushed back enough to slide off the diff center pin, but to make it easier i took off center support of driveshaft, so it slid out easily.

3 Bolts on diff side


So center support is behind heatshield , which i removed as well and also there is a cross member/bar which needs to be removed - come on 10mm bolts nothing serious.
Can see a center support bolts through the heat shield gap in next pic.


 

Once thats done drive/prop shaft comes off

In pic above i have already disconnected handbrake cables, but i took few pictures after to show how it links in. You also can see that center pin poking out from diff in pic above, so I dont know if you can leave driveshafts center support on and it would slide out as you remove subframe, didnt know how long it is and didnt want put any stress on parts and potentially damage something. 
Here are pics of handbrake cable T junction, pretending main cable from handbrake joins in middle.

Once that's done , all it's left is ABS sensors.

You disconnect them inside car behind rear speakers, I got no pic, but see pics earlier in this post.
Then you just feed them through by pushing out grommet in body. See pic where red arrow points


After all that time to remove subframe bolts, there are one 19mm in front and 4 12mm in rear on each side.
I had bigger jack and i set it up to support it against diff itself since it seems heaviest part of whole thing. Had a friends to help balancing as i slowly lowered the jack.
In one of my previous pictures you can see how i supported the diff.


That's about it. With diff together it weighs from 80-100kg roughly. Wasnt easy to carry to garden, where all the treatment and dissemblance will happen.

If have any questions, please ask. I can take extra pictures or check the sizes of bolts if interested.

 

Edited May 30, 2021 by Doublefacy (see edit history)