Rubber doughnut, diff bushes & mystery prize

The on-going saga of my rear end suspension arm/wheel bearing replacement continues. I am currently dropping the subframe as it would appear some clown has put in the rear upper arm bolts the wrong way round, so there is physically not enough room to get them out. Have looked at EPC diagrams and pics from miko_supra's efforts when he had someone elses subframe out which show the bolt head on the inside of the suspension arm as opposed to the outside.

Have tried endless amounts of wiggling and trying to hammer it through with a brake pin puncher through the gap I took the photo from. Is this the wrong way round or am I just being mechanically inept? Here it is...

Anyway, moving on to the first question. Since I am dropping the subframe I need to disconnect the prop at the diff end (have already disconnected the diff from the subframe, I am taking it out seperately). I have disconnected the three bolts holding the prop to the rubber doughnut but I can't seem to seperate them. I'm doing this on my driveway so there isn't the best room for movement, do I just need to pull harder?

Second question... when I get the subframe off can I replace the rear diff bushes (the ones with hex bolts) by hand or would I need the use of a press?

Third, WTF is this!?

I heard it rattling about inside my side skirt (!!), I managed to coax it out through a crack. I pressed the button to no avail, although I was a bit concerned about what would happen if the button triggered something.

Can't wait to drive my car again

Rick

I think its a torch

Ah, would make sense. Looks a bit cumbersome for a torch but then it is probably from the 90's. I was hoping it was something a bit more exciting than that

An HKS Torch? Is that exciting enough?

That'll do! I think the real question is what was it doing in my side skirt?

Hiding

A game of torch hide and seek gone wrong, it hid, got deported to the UK, and it's torch mates were left wondering for the rest of their battery lives...

Progress

I managed to get the diff out with a little more shuffling and after i'd just undone all the bolts going into the doughnut.

I had a look at some workshop manual thing I picked up from here which seems to suggest you don't need a press to remove the bushes, just a special tool, so I think i'll persevere with that.

Still got to try and remove the toe adjustment arms which are stuck in. I think I might get the subframe blasted and coated silver as it's looking a bit tatty. I'll upload a pic before I put everything back in if anyone's interested.

Id love to see pics sir

This is yet another job for me later in the year/next year!

A game of torch hide and seek gone wrong, it hid, got deported to the UK, and it's torch mates were left wondering for the rest of their battery lives...

You should try to get in touch with the foreign torches, if only to set their minds at rest.

If any of the rear arms are seized in DO NOT try and hammer the bolt out. The bolt is seized to the inner tube of the bush assembly and is therefore a larger diameter than the hole in the subframe, which the bolt goes through. So hammering will only force open the hole. The best way i have found is to get a circular cutting disc and cut down either side of the bush through the bolt.

The differential bushes will come out with a good hammer and chizzle. Just make the outer edge collapse in on its self to relieve the tension and it should hammer out easily enough.

To get the diff bushes in. A handy tip is to chuck the bushes in the freezer the night before so that the metal contracts. Then I use a home made press to squeeze them in. This diagram will show what i mean...

Basically the red parts are half inch thick pieces of square of steel with a hole through them so that the bolt can go through.

Oh and also, just remove the prop shaft from the gear box. It just slides out.

Cheers for the advice Miko Should come in handy. I've managed to get all the suspension arms off now. Just scouting a few places to get the subframe cleaned & coated, and will need to source some diff bushes, then i'm good to get going again.

Third, WTF is this!?

LMAO!!

I miss that torch. I dropped it one day when changing the front speakers, I think I was shining it at the wires between the door and the car body, and it fell into a gap at the front of the side skirt!

Because the side skirts are riveted on, I couldn't work out a way to rescue it! I completely forgot about it until now!

Haha, mystery solved

A few updates for anyone that's interested:

Well I removed the old diff bushes using a unique technique of wedging the back end of a hammer in and wiggling at either side until it came out. That coupled with liberal amounts of WD40 seemed to do the trick.

Took off the old subframe mounts as well.

An example of the some of the parts chaos that ensued in my kitchen after I took bits off. Had my diff lying about there as well but I changed the oil in it and chucked it in the shed. Just as well I don't have a wife because I don't think i'd get away with this. It's a nice manly feeling having a house full of car parts anyway.

My window sill nuts & bolts archive.

I had my new wheels bearings, seal kit, and drive flanges installed by a local garage. Also got them to take off the lower suspension arms because I couldn't seem to get them off at all. The ball joint splitters from Halfords weren't quite man enough for the job. Once I got my hubs back I proceeded to tidy up and spray some of the remaining bits like driveshafts and anything that looked a bit tatty.

I've still got the diff and ARB to paint black along with giving a final coat to the things on the MDF board in the picture above.

Today I collected my subframe. You can see how weathered it was looking in the first few pics so here are some afters...

Plenty of new parts to go on...

Gonna give these a bash at some point once i've given them a wee refurb. If they aren't that good i'll just put my UK's back on.

That's it for now,

Ricky.

if you dont mind me asking how much did this lot set you back as im sure im going to have to do mine soon.

did you have any definative problems with the rear end that made you change everything as my rear end judders in sharp corners

Which parts are you interested in the price of? It failed it's MOT on one of the wheel bearings and play in one upper arm bush so i've just taken it as an opportunity to replace & refresh loads of things.

urgh another job ill be tackling in the coming months! that should be fun!

Bit of progress...

Got both diff bushes in. Firstly stored the bushes in the freezer the night before in the hope they'd contract a bit. Secondly I gave the housings in the subframe and the bushes themselves a good greasing with 'Bearing Grease' I got from Halfords. The first one (the one with one hole) went in with minimal fuss but I made a peasants attempt at a press/something to hold the bush in place out of some MDF I had kicking about for the 2nd one.

The bolts I used were the ones that are in the rubber diff doughnut but I soon found out the thread didn't go far enough up the bolt so I jammed two pieces of MDF in as a spacer. Once the bolts were tightened I just tapped it in with the plastic hammer, re-tightened the bolts, and repeated the process until it was sitting flush.

I notice the two pink dots on the bushes are on opposite sides. I hope this doesn't mean that i've fitted them incorrectly. I checked the first one against a picture I had so that's in the same way as it was before. The two holed bush I measured against the diff as the two holes in the diff lay slightly lower than the single hole so I fitted the 2nd bush acccordingly. I can't see how it'd be wrong but if anyone can then please tell me.

Will hopefully get the subframe and diff back in in the next couple of days then i'll just have the handbrake assemblies to tackle next.

Also just wanted to show a pic of my new wheels I got from Jevansio on here (cheers Jay)...

I haven't cleaned them yet so they aren't looking at their shiniest. I was thinking now isn't a good time to put them on as it's coming up to winter but i'm not buying a set of wheels and having them sit upstairs gathering dust for months. So just need to decide on some tyres and they will be on soon.

Pretty sure the one with 2 holes is in upside down now after looking at a suspension service guide. Fail.

Plenty of new parts to go on...

 

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what is in that impressive pile of bits? im guessing all wasnt cheap

No, definitely not cheap. Two stock rear discs, porterfield rear pads, new handbrake shoes, blitz 78mm exhaust gasket, two rear upper arms, two rear lower arms, two toe adjustment arms, two diff bushes, two subframe mounts, and plenty of nuts and bolts to go along with it. Prices for most of it are on the Whifbitz website. The diff bushes and the subframe mounts are about £60-70 each from my local Toyota. Can't believe I put the bloody diff bush in upside down.

Thankfully the 2nd one slid out quite nicely so i'll be refitting it whenever it stops raining

ouch..... big money but that comes part and parcel with ownership!

how much did the track rods and handbrake shoes set you back?

I have got the subframe and the diff back on, with all the suspension arms loosely attatched to the hubs. However i'm having a problem getting the upper and lower arms back on to the hubs properly. The trouble I am having is the lock nuts for the arms seem to be locking too early so that the nut is not tight enough to hold it in to the hubs firmly. If I try and tighten any more the bolt just spins inside the arm. Can anyone give me any advice?