Front Strut Braces

[chargin]

23 hours ago, jimk said:

Other than under hood jewelry

 

Keep in mind originally these cars had 165/80 r13 tires and very small sway bars, lower profile 14's/15's on 195 tires as well as stiffer springs has pushed this chassis way beyond design parameters for body flex so it may not be required but it could be helpful 

I also added a roll bar and that stopped a lot of basic Flex rattles and squeaks 

 

Many of these could arguably be considered useless but if these were my biggest mistakes in life I'd laugh 

 

TEP front brace with Torque brace, this was great since I had so much engine sway and I didn't want urethane motor mounts 

 

Rear Brace to clear out the engine compartment for service room

 

Tii Rear Reinforced control arms and adjustable rear subframe to get my car to drive straight 

 

Danjer Front negative camber boxed arms and lower brace to improve turn-in 

 

 

195x50 r15 wheels

 

All of these may not be needed but this shows how far we can stray from "Stock", if your car is all OEM specked maybe you need none of it 

 

 

 

Where I started 

 

 

 

[jimk]

1 hour ago, chargin said:

if your car is all OEM specked maybe you need none of it 

That pretty well sums it up.

Heavily modified car, get one, stock or nearly stock, it's jewelry and not needed.  So to don't feel bad if you don't have one.

[visionaut]

I’d say it’s not if the car’s stock or not, it’s how one drives the car whether a well-engineered strut brace or a stiffer chassis is noticeable/useful…

 

[2002Scoob]

20 hours ago, Conserv said:

Jim,

 

I’ve never used a front strut brace — or a rear “upper shock mount” brace for that matter — so I’m probably not an advocate for a brace of any sort.

 

But… I’ll freely admit that my ‘02’s have always evidenced measurable flex of their nose sheetmetal in the form of ever-changing wrinkles where the radiator support’s upper flange meets the inner fenders.

 

It has been suggested that this may be caused by incorrectly aligned hoods, but this flex has been visible on the four ‘02’s I’ve owned and regularly driven.

 

Best regards,

 

Steve

 

 

Waaaait, that’s what that’s from?!
 

My car developed the same after I upgraded my suspension and went to bigger wheels/tires and started driving it harder. I thought someone mighta backed into me street parking but there was never any other damage to be found…

Edited December 5, 2022 by 2002Scoob

[Conserv]

5 hours ago, 2002Scoob said:

Waaaait, that’s what that’s from?!
 

My car developed the same after I upgraded my suspension and went to bigger wheels/tires and started driving it harder. I thought someone mighta backed into me street parking but there was never any other damage to be found…

 

My cars have all had stock suspensions and little-bitty 13" tires. But, yes, if it matters, I do drive my cars hard. 👍

 

Regards,

 

Steve

 

 

[TobyB]

On 12/4/2022 at 5:15 PM, Lorin said:

Paging Toby. 

 

I got nothin'.

 

I don't think the strut tops move much in rotation (what a bar might mitigate somewhat)

as they don't take much lateral loading,

but I've never instrumented to check. 

I do think there's significant flex at the base

of the a- pillar, vertically.  That, I've measured.  

 

And Gustave's E30M3 articles are quoted, above, which go through the math better than I could.

 

t

with a #150/in spring, are you really going to feel the difference between #4000/in and #4500/in?

[theNomad]

It gets a "load" from my hand every time I lean on it over the engine bay...

Edited December 8, 2022 by theNomad

[TobyB]

Oh, my...  that could be taken more than one way...  

 

t

races a car with stock lower control arms, stock (e21, but they're stock) trailing arms

stock lots of stuff... but reinforced tabs on the rear subframe.

 

 

[2002Scoob]

Didn’t Tom do some sorta cut strut bar and a pencil on cardboard drawing machine thing to test this a while back?

[jimk]

If someone wants to pop for one of these, I'd be glad to install it between the strut mounts and record movement on an ECU log.

HT-011201-HT-011214 - Linear Travel Sensors.pdf

[John76]

44 minutes ago, 2002Scoob said:

Didn’t Tom do some sorta cut strut bar and a pencil on cardboard drawing machine

Tom did indeed.

Calling Tom @'76mintgrün'02  .... where are you?

[johnny02]

I recently came across a great explanation of the forces involved in cornering and how a strut bar/brace helps, but I'll be damned if I can find it again.  Need a place to store all these interweb nuggets I find.

Edit: I think this was it:

Yes, a strutbar really works.

STORE.UUCMOTORWERKS.COM

  

Edited December 7, 2022 by johnny02

[TobyB]

I would trust Tom over UUC...

 

t

 

[jimk]

24 minutes ago, TobyB said:

I would trust Tom over UUC

+1 I don't doubt the diagram, but it took UUC 2 tries to get the right anti-sway bar to me for the 2002.  First one was big enough for an F350 Ford.  Visa helped me get some resolution.

[David Layton]

I have the HR Springs and S&S sways, so a brace is probably needed.  Looking at TEP and Weicher Sport.  Any recs?