Rear strut brace question

[threpwood]

Originally Posted by JackG

Thought I'd save you some time. Here are my comments from that other thread regarding the rear strut brace you have:

"Overall the brace kit looks fairly well made, but the brackets that bolt to the struts seem a little wimpy. They are flat plates with welded-in studs for the spherical joints to bolt on. The joints fit over the threaded portion, then just wedges onto the unthreaded portion. It then sits about 1/2 - 3/4 inch above the plate, which seems to give the stud a chance to exert a good bit of force on the plate, possibly flexing or ultimately cracking/breaking the weld. Maybe not, but time will tell.

Second problem is that there were no instructions. You may think it painfully obvious how they are mounted, and that's true, but with a couple of exceptions. You would think that you'd simply mount and torque down the plates, then thread the spherical ends into the rod, then place on the studs, tighten their nuts, then twist the rod and tighten its lock nuts. Well, almost. The studs on the plates, when mounted and tightened down, are not pointed straight up. They are canted in toward each other and back at an angle, which causes the rod to have to be continuously adjusted while the ends are placed onto the studs. Except, that isn't possible either, because the clips on the rear panel that hold the top drive cables are in the way until the spherical ends are completely seated! You must mount one plate, put the rod and its ends in place and on the other plate, then adjust the rod while getting the second plate into position, then torque it down and complete the setup. It's a pain. If the studs were 1/2 an inch out further and pointed straight up when mounted, that would all go away.

Third problem is the biggest. Because of the studs being at such an odd angle, when the nuts are tightened down on those studs to hold the spherical ends in place, they put pressure on the free portion of the spherical ends that thread into the rod. This makes proper adjustment of the rod impossible, so you end up guessing if you have pressure applied outward, inward, or just neutral. You're guessing anyway, since there are no INSTRUCTIONS!"

Anyway, good luck with it. It can be made to work, just takes some fiddling around with.

Jack

Mine didn't come with any instruction either. Your post above is very helpful as I now know what to do to get this done tomorrow. Thanks!

I also have the racing dynamics front strut and think that this one should bolt right in without much difficulty.

[eslai]

Is that really how high up the heim joint sits on that cylindrical stalk? Talk about poor design. That won't do much to brace the rear and who knows how long those welds will last at the base of that stalk.

[threpwood]

Originally Posted by eslai

Is that really how high up the heim joint sits on that cylindrical stalk? Talk about poor design. That won't do much to brace the rear and who knows how long those welds will last at the base of that stalk.

The cylindrical stalk rests about 2.5 cm from the bottom. I don't know how much force is needed to crack the welds, but time will tell.

Other rear strut brace (such as from titanium advantage) sits much lower but it rests on screws which may get easier bended.

[mjw930]

I installed the unit sold by EVO. I know it's made for them but I'm not sure if it's shared by any other vendors (I think Imagine gets theirs from the same supplier but I'm not sure)

Although the installation is not documented it's really rather simple IF you do a couple of things to prep.

1. On my '03 the clips that hold the drive cables also hold a cloth piece from the top. You'll need to remove those clips. That involves popping the cable out and unscrewing them.

2. Install both base plates and notch the insulation so the bolts protrude and there is no insulation to prevent the bar from dropping all the way down the bolts

3. Size the bar to fit over the top of both bolts.

4. Expand the bar as you walk it down the bolts (they are angled in so you need to expand the bar to get it to slide all the way down.

5. Expand the bar so the joints are pushed all the way down to the bottom of the bolts

6. Install the nuts

7. Re-install the clips that hold the cable and cloth making sure the lower clip portion lays on top of the strut brace

8. Re-install the top cables and the cloth.

Note, the nuts don't hold the bar on the bottom of the bolts, the pressure does. There will be a small gap between the heim joint and the bottom of the nut, this isn't a problem. With the bar fully tensioned it cannot ride up on the bolt. This design actually causes a slight downward force as lateral force is applied, this will reduce the force applied to the welds and transfer that force into the opposing shock tower.

Here's some pictures.