S3 E-Type

Removal of the rear subframe/cage to allow access to brakes/diff etc.

I like the way the Jaguar repair manual refers to "remove rear suspension" in a flippant manner before you can do minor jobs like service propshaft or rear brakes....  anyway, it turns out it's not as hard as you'd imagine.

You need to get the car with the wheels at least 6 inches off the ground, and support the back of the car with wooden blocks on the floor forward of the radius arm mountings.

Here's a pic of mine with 35+ years of grease plus what look like some Koni shocks:



Getting the Radius Arm mountings off is the toughest part of the job. They are mounted on a 'conical' pressing in the floor of the car, and have a similar conical mating surface inside the bush. After removing the safety strap & thru bolt it will likely be jammed solid. I used a large cold chisel and larger hammer to chisel across & in the plane of the floor on the inner metal ring of the bush... once it's distorted a little then the mounting pops off (I'm planning to replace the bushes, so destructive methods are OK!).

In the pic below the orange rusty part is the cone pressing in the floor of the car, the freed radius arm is hanging at bottom of pic.



People recommend a motorcycle hoist as the ideal tool to support the rear suspension subframe, I didnt have one so I fashioned something from 4x2 timber which clamped-on to my normal trolley jack. I think you could do it with just the normal jack resting on the diff casing if you had one or two friends to balance the subframe as you drop it out.



Then, it's just a matter of disconnecting hydraulics & handbrake, unbolting propshaft and then undoing 12 nuts which secure the subframe rubber mountings.

Here it is on the floor:



Here's a pic of where it came from, I plan to remove & refurbish that heatshield.




In order to start strip-down of the subframe I used an engine hoist to lift it onto the bench so it's at a comfortable height to work at: