Gtpguy

My car has an indented subframe and his cauising my car to sit slanted and also causing my cat to rest against the trans while at a stop light and cause a nasty vibration.

Here's some steps me and Fireman came up with last night.

1) remove hood and use engine hoist to hold engine and tranny up. Undo engine mount bolts

2) Put rear tires on Rhino Ramps

3) Put the front on Jack stands.

4) Remove tires & brakes

5) unbolt strut bolts up top

6) Raise floor jack up to subframe & Unbolt 6 subframe bolts.

7) Lower floor jack with subframe?

How does this look? What steps am I missing? Lastly, how long should this take? I read that the lower engine removal method takes 2-3 hours.

Thanks guys.

**EDIT: I forgot to say I have a complete subframe/Kmember (spindles, suspension, a-arms etc...) waiting for install**

LiENUS

Dont bother taking off the hood, I just did this. Put front on jackstands, remove tires, take off sway bar, undoe tie-rod ends then undo the nuts holding the steering knuckle to the ball join on the lower control arm. Undo the two bolts holding the shock towers to the control arm. then seperate the rack and pinion from the steering shaft, then undo the two bolts holding the rack and pinion to the frame and the lines that go into the rack and pinion where the steering shaft went in. and remove it (you need to remove it because there is a brake line under it). After removing the rack and pinion undo the bolts holding your brake lines to the frame and free them up from the frame (difficult to describe but basicly make sure they are above the frame, use a engine hoist to support the engine now. now take the long bolts out of the motor mounts (they hold the motor mounts together) if you cant get the passenger side one out then unbolt the motor mount from the frame, its hard to do but very possible. now you have a choice, you can either remove the two lcas before you remove the subframe or leave them on, each lca weighs a good bit so i advise removing them, its two bolts and a bit of grunting. I put my subframe back in with the control arms on and it was a bitch, its much easier to do it with them seperated.

mdacton

looks good. Its going to take you longer than 3hrs. if you are swaming the brakes and spinles etc. over to the new one.....I would make a day of it and not rush it

Have fun, I have a k-member with a-arms you can have.....no shipping tho

Gtpguy

Sorry, I forgot to mention that I have a complete Kmember ready to go in. Spindles, a-arms suspension everything. The only thing I am swappiing from mine are the rotors.

LiENUS

dropping it like you're dropping a motor wont work unless you tie the motor into the unibody somehow, to drop the whole suspension like that you need to jack up the car using your engine hoist.

mdacton

put your jacks stands under the frame ...hold the engine up with the hoist....It will work fine

LiENUS

If hes using a used K-member it wont go back together, when you swap k-members they're off by a few tenths of an inch and its a royal bitch to line everything up, especially when there was damage to the old k-member, that means the unibody is shifted a little to accommodate the old k-member, hes not going to be able to put everything back together as one anyway, hes better off disassembling them on the car so he has less weight to deal with as well as more clearance for pulling things out and putting them back in. and if he drops it that way hes going to have to pull his brake lines off and rebleed them, if you drop the peices one at a time you dont need to bleed the brake lines.

mdacton

he is going to have to bleed the brakes anyway....I don't see why he couldn't put everything together hand tight( motor mounts) then put the 6 k-member bolts in last...then tighten everything at one time....I highly dought the subframe shifted to accomadate the bent k-member...if it did then he has more problems than just replacing the k-member anyway

LiENUS

unless hes replacing his calipers hes not going to need to bleed his brakes, I didn't and I just finished this job up. and the subframe is the K-member so yes the subframe shifted to accommodate the bent k-member. I was referring to the unibody, which is going to be a few tenths of an inch off no matter what if hes using a used k-member, if hes getting a new tubular one I suspect the tolerances on those are a little looser to accomodate flex in the unibody the factory subframes are very tight on tolerances, any flex in the unibody at all and they're a bitch to do, I made the mistake of doing this with my control arms on and those alone made it a bitch to do, I couldn't imagine doing it with the shock towers, steering knuckle and upper control arms attached.

mdacton

I have done more than 15 of them...never had a problem....I don't understand why you didn't have to bleed your brakes?

Anytime you open the system you need to bleed them.....Did you take everything off without taking any lines loose at all?

I would take the knuckles off and shocks. I think this is alot simpler process than you are making it out to be Mr. Lienus....I have done a few a few tenths of an inch is quite a bit also....a few tenths of an inch I really don't see you getting the bolts to line up at all.....

LiENUS

I didn't take off my brake lines at all, theres no need to take off your brake lines when dropping the subframe, you unbolt them from the subframe and set them aside, and you know what it was a few tenths of an inch but the subframe made it in there just fine. any time you swap something like a subframe from one car to another it gets worn into that car and you have to screw with it to get it to line up straight with the new car, its not just a cut and dry lower the old one put up the new one and put the bolts in, and the more crap you have attached the harder it is.

Gtpguy

Well, we'll see what happens, but I definately have to undo the steering linkage correct?

LiENUS

and brake lines if you're doing it his way.

Gtpguy

Are you taking a jab at Mdacton with that comment, because that doesn't help anyone. You both seem to have different ways of going about the same procedure. Please don't mess my thread up because you both have different opinions on which way is better.