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No progress on the brace, was busy helping a busy this weekend. But the grind continues!
@XR7-4.6 I feel like on bumpy roads if one wheel hits a bump the shock load isn’t transferred to the opposite side as much. It’s still there but not as much. These are the same roads same driving habits.
Once I get the braces done, I’d gladly send any one of you guys my stock cheapy brace so one of y’all can try it out and let me know what you think.
M
In this case, a shock tower brace .. is more in line with an additional chassis brace to reduce any flex the body may absorb. The amount of flex may be compounded by having stiffer springs, bushings and anti sway bars - this may provide a small amount of body rigidity where the body would flex a greater distance - hard cornering .. not bumpy roads.
It sounds awfully like what you’re describing is bumpsteer. Think about that for a second, what typically causes that is the tie rods and LCAs changing lengths relative to each other through travel. If the shock towers were moving like blades of grass in the breeze over pumps the UCA would move inboard and gain camber, but the LCA and tie rod would remain in the same relationship with each other, there’s no effect on bumpsteer.
Besides which why would the STB prevent load transfer to the other side, whatever load that is? That’s the whole purpose of it, to distribute the shock load exerted against the one tower to the other
I’m not an engineer by any means, so excuse my ignorance. Since we don’t have shocks and have struts instead, the force loads aren’t the same??
the force still has to go somewhere, does the force load transmit to the body via the upper control and lower control arms? In that case wouldn’t a strut tower bar help with keeping those towers together, since the control arms are taking the abuse of the roads??
@XR7-4.6 makes sense, would a bumpsteer kit fix this?? I know the mustang guys have kits on hand.
Also that is the goal of the strut tower bar? To share the load associated with strut towers?? That’s what I’m thinking the brace was for??
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Thank you! I see people asking about these bars here and there and id be cool to help out the communityShort story here... My 96 Tbird I had years ago developed some serious rust issues. The reason I got rid of it was because the passenger front shock tower rusted out. It was to the point that it looked like it was about to shoot through the hood. I found out by opening the hood to check the oil. It still drove perfectly fine and had no noticeable handling difference.
Great to see you making something for these cars though... TBH you would probably get a lot more interest on Facebook selling them. I imagine most the people here myself included believe they are just another bolt on that isn't going to do much of anything
@XR7-4.6 this is a new s550, I noticed the torque boxes have this buldge on them I’m assuming it’s like factory bracing built into the car? To better help transfer those loads you say that go through the whole front?
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“In essence yes, but therein lies a flaw in the logic that has always driven me nuts with STBs; If the towers flex from load, why would linking them together improve things? Would not the loaded tower transfer that load through the STB and then to the other tower, and simply deflect the other tower like one big parallelogram? Shouldn't the purpose of bracing something that's deflecting to brace it against something that isn't deflecting?”
Would the fix for this be an x brace connecting both shock towers instead of the bar? Obviously it would never work the engine is in the way. Just trying to picture what you’re saying.
I'm saying IF the right shock tower deflects in any measurable way, and IF the shock tower bar were 100% rigid with no inherent deflection within itself, it seems to me whatever structural deficiency is allowing the right tower to deflect inward would simply push the rigid bar and deflect the left tower outward.Let’s say driving on a road, the right side tire hits a bump. You said that you want to brace against something that isn’t deflecting, wouldn’t the bar in this situation connect to the opposite side stock tower that hasn’t felt the bump? Since that tower hasn’t been deflecting due to hitting the same bump, it helps stabilize the other side since it’s not deflecting and solid?
I also have other ideas I wanted to run by you guys as well, pretty sure you don’t think they would work either but I’d like to try and see/feel for myself![]()
Tying the shock absorber stubs together would do less than nothing, there's sound theory and valid applications for tower bars in certain applications but the key in their functionality is that they're mounted directly to unibody structure, not the shock absorber threads. The shock absorbers on our cars have no effect on suspension geometry whatsoever, actual struts do, but even then at the point of the stub it will have some degree of isolation between it and the upper mount that fixes it to the towers, none of that bracing effect will be transferred into the unibody with that isolation, the bar will just be along for the ride.@XR7-4.6 thank you for the detailed response honestly, I really appreciate the effort you put into replying. And I totally understand, I know our car is getting older and just isn’t up to par in terms of rigidity compared to new cars. But I know with some effort it could be helped some.
I’m still waiting on the tube to pick up and take to the fabricator. I really wish I could mount the bar directly to the top of the shock tower without the need to drill holes on the tower, but like I said I have coil overs and I know most people have stock shocks which have that stub coming up and wouldn’t be compatible with mine.
I really want to start another thread and share some ideas I have to help this chassis. And hear your feedback.
@XR7-4.6 yea sorry that’s what I meant, mounting it to those bolts, for coil over guys we can just buy longer bolts and secure it easy, but shock guys i don’t know how far up the stock bolts come up and that middle piece would be in the way.
I also have a picture I snagged of TCCOA showing a ruff idea of what would be possible.
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Alright, for these first 5 since the plates have been made I’m gonna do them like my brace. The next ones will hopefully bolt up to the top of the shock mount. Thanks @XR7-4.6
I’ve weighed the STB and it’s about 5-7lbs for anybody wondering the weight.