Wow, Thank you so much Gtdump, Jo e Lefors and jwight for your detailed instructions.
As far as I understand it now, you unscrew the 4 screws that are holding the subframe and replace them with the record release bolts (they seem to have two different lengths?). Then you can lift up the body of the smart car and get access to the ac compressor.
Yep, two different lengths. I gave the measurements in an earlier post.
However, I would be afraid that the body could collapse on me while doing work in the opened up gap since I do not have a lift to raise the body. I would be reluctant to trust a pneumatic car jack.
It's a risk noted in the service manual. Anytime you put a car on a lift, jacks, stands, or the like there's a chance of failure; not trying to hide that. What I have done is when I separate the subassembly I put pieces of 4x4 in the gap between the two so that should my cribbing fail and the car somehow slip it won't crush me; you can see the blocks in some of the images in my subassembly thread. It doesn't remove all risk, but it does mitigate a lot of it. Anytime something feels sketchy think of your safety first and examine it for ways of making it safer or don't do it. I don't work on cars on jacks, I don't get under a car on just jackstands, and I don't put my hands in places where I think there's a risk of me losing them. One can do all this work safely, you just have to understand what you're doing and how to protect yourself.
Is there no easier solution, like taking off the oil pan or removing the alternator to get to the ac compressor?
Regards, and multiple thanks for your detailed advice so far.
There are probably other ways. Having worked on the car before and after having the bolts, there are some tasks which the bolts make much, much easier. You could try disconnecting the motor mount that attaches to the trans and lowering it that way; it might gain you the space you need I don't know.
When I was disconnecting the coolant hoses I had to get under the car. I had cribbing under the car at 3 points along with stands. It would take a cascade of failures to crush me, but it
could happen.