iMac Intel 21.5" Retina 4K Display Lower Support Bracket Replacement

Written By: Evan Noronha

Comments: 6

iMac Intel 21.5" Retina 4K Display Lower Support Bracket Replacement

Difficulty

Moderate

Steps

Time Required

No estimate

Introduction

Prereq-only guide for removing the lower support bracket in an iMac.

Tools

Step 1

Remove the following five Phillips screws holding the lower support bracket in place:
Four 3.2 mm screws
One 1.7 mm screw
On at least some EMC 2544 machines, all five screws are the same size.
You may need to peel up the display adhesive lining the bottom edge of the iMac enclosure to access the screws.

I used the CR-V 4.0 standard screwdriver head to help peel away the adhesive lining. My fingers were too big to grab it, and my fingernails too short to get the removal started. This 4 screw head worked perfectly.

airshack - 07/02/20

Step 2

Remove the lower support bracket from the iMac enclosure.

Of all the parts of this entire procedure, replacing this one piece is the hardest part! The screws are tiny and they just don’t seem to want to grab the support piece. Also it seems to perform no function which is also annoying.

John M - 25/01/19

I left mine out. LOL

jerrid_foiles - 04/05/19

Line up the screw holes and press on the bracket from the back to help the screws grab. If your fingers are too big, press with the flat side of your spudger. As long as there’s no gap between the bracket and the iMac’s frame, the screws should grab easily.

Jeff Suovanen - 07/05/19

I put it in at a slight angle lining up the right hand side holes, screwed in the two screws and gently pressed my finger behind it on the rest

jmorphett5 - 30/04/20

If you only want to replace the HD and RAM, take a big shortcut and leave the logic board in, as well as all the parts needed to remove it (speaker, power supply etc). Once the display is removed, just take out the fan and the top two logic board screw. There is than sufficient space to gently remove and insert the two ram modules. HD can easily be replaced with an SSD by just removing the HD mounting brackets...

diddl14 -