Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Suspension New rear strut tower brace

In an extreme pothole situation where the strut is fully extended: the weight of the suspension assy might be enough to pull the strut tower and then the bar would go into a tension situation...but yes that is a very bad situation and you strut tower brace is the last thing you will be worried about. That is the only time your towers will flex outward...and it usually means there is damage...and usually alot of it.

Even if I don't appreiate the "puppy tone", I believe he is right. There might be some shearing forces also (from chassis torsion), so the ball joint assembly at the ends is a great idea IMHO (if you dont want to have bending or shearing failures in the fasters). Makes me reconsider my JB weld idea...

While this design is cool because it is removable, it will not provide the same rigidity as a welded in bar with no ball joints (because it will not inhibit the small front to back movement that is posible in high stress conditions). Still a good tradeoff, as this movement should be minimal compared to the shock tower lateral pinch.

What "tone" have I taken? In every instance that I was being a smartazz there is a smiley right next to it to say so...

OK. I'm not an engineer, and I'm not trying to be an A$$, but here goes.

Bradness, what's 3 x 3? Please proofread your site. 'Nuff said. :p

Otherwise, I agree that the tower bar will see tension, and often. Check this link for more "Strut Bar Theory."

Here's a preview:

And on a related note:

Define "best." There's a lot of bars out there for over $100 that look about the same, and do about the same thing, with minor differences to differentiate them.

Meanwhile those wacky Merkur owners are using Hardware store angle iron and spending about $20 complete for something most people just won't see. And, yes, it's functional.

http://www.merkurencyclopedia.com/Suspension/shockbrace.html

Roger, your comment "...what's 3 x 3?" Where did you find that? I am not the webmaster, but I will look into it.

As for my use of the word "best", must be that marketing course I took at University. So I took a small liberty, decide for yourself. The last thing I want to do is provoke thought!

Sorry Roger. I should have thanked you for your assertion that I WAS correct when I stated that STB's experience tension and compression loads. Quite simply, it made sense to me that if the tower(s) flex in compression they will eventually return to their natural position via an equal and opposite stress (tension). Puppy disagrees. That's fine with me, as long as the reasons why are given so I/you/he may reconsider our original line of thought and adjust accordingly.

I read most of the article and he has a good point but I still disagree. The weight of the vehicle is on the top strut mount via the tower, this force is (lets say) true vertical. The load path goes like this: from the tire contact patch through the rim into the hub. From the hub it goes into the lower part of the strut/lower spring pearch. Through the spring pearch into the spring and up to the upper spring mount. From the upper mount the load goes into the bearing plate and that is attached to the tower. All of the weight forces the tower inwards due to the angle the tower is attached to our car, and the angle the strut is installed. So even if we enter a corner hard enough to unload the front inside tire (this is a FWD car....cmon?) is is not going to pull the tower outwards. Tension is defined as loosely as this: pulling on the rod in a way in such that it sees negative load...in other words if a load cel were placed on the strut bar the load would have to go from one extreme (load cels see force pushing upon an object as a negative reading due to their design) so it would have to go from negative through zero into a positive load for the bar to see any tension......

p.s. I have already forgotten more about load tranfer paths that you will ever know.... this is too much fun....

I wholeheartedly agree, at least with regards to me. I make no claims on the matter, and I didn't write the article.

BTW, E30 M3s do have a tendency to raise the inside front in hard cornering, whereas our cars tend to "lift the back leg." The article I linked to is from an M3 site.