question abour strut bars

[rehv_Aerodeck86]

1 n00bass question: why strut bars have those moving connections / joints on both ends? is it required or can strut bar be made of 1 piece?

i'm planning to make one myself but dunno what whould be the best construction.

thx

[epic1400cs]

1 n00bass question: why strut bars have those moving connections / joints on both ends? is it required or can strut bar be made of 1 piece?

i'm planning to make one myself but dunno what whould be the best construction.

thx

Hello my Aerodeck friend!
There are both moving connection and rigid type. But in general, moving type is much much easier to fit. We think the body of our car is rigid but if you major carefully there are a couple to 4 or 5 mm inaccuracy depending on the age and condition of the car. So chances are the distance of the strut tower top differs slightly depend on the individual unit. So more adjuster = easy to fit = easier to make.

There are quite wide variety in shape and design as far as I have seen.
1) One piece type - flange and the bar are welded together. Most of them are in steel. Affordable.

2) Three/four piece type - flange are made out of sheet steel/Aluminium/stainless steel.
Bar in the middle are alloy/aluminium/carbon fibre, sometimes bar is in two piece with screw adjuster in the middle.
The shape of the bar are round tube/oval tube/C-channel.
The joint between two flanges and the bar can be single through bolt or pillow ball joint which allow a bit of flex (rare).
I have heard that it is very good to have screw type adjuster on the bar so that you can adjust the length of the bar. This allow you to set up the bar to ‘push’ both top of the strut tower.

3) More than four piece (tube) type
Reinforced variation of 1) and 2).
If the body weight is very heavy or further to minimise the flex of front section, the bar can be doubled.
Like one in this page;
http://www.mls12.com/keikakuzitukou13.htm

Next step will be to reinforce the joint of those two tubes by welding a small piece of metal sheet in triangle shape.
You can see something simillar here;
http://www.mls12.com/keikakuzitukou28.htm

Most drastic one I have ever had was in a Toyota Starlet in the 80’s. It was made by Toyota tuning shop 'TOMS' for dirt track race or off-road rally. There are flanges on the strut tower top as normal. One bar connects the both flanges as normal. Second bars go to bulk head diagonally and bolt on against bulk head wall. Third bars go to the front diagonally and bolt on to upper front member near radiator top. It might be difficult to imagine but in short the shape of the bars are similar to figure of ‘8’. It was very strong and rigid but they said if there is an accident, whole front section will be damaged cos all of them are connected to each other.

There is another variation in the design of flange. Normally the bottom side of the flange that mate to the body panel are flat. If you weld a rib (say 1 to 2 inches sticking out down ward) to the bottom side of the flange which will touch to the side wall of the strut tower housing, further you can reduce the flex of the chassis. It is almost beyond my linguistic ability so very difficult to illustrate. One of my mate works for a car manufacturer told me ages ago.

[rehv_Aerodeck86]

thanx man for this informative reply
now i'm almost getting the strut-thingie.

The 2) - three type strut from metal seems quite easy/cheap to build. I doubt that there would be a huge difference, cuz i dont do very much fast cornering (14" steel rims with 175mm tyres ). But nice to have it under the hood...keeps the car together

[3gn86lxi]

Hey, on strut bars,???? Who makes a front bar, or what will fit on the 3g??
I've adapted a 1990 front strut bar for the back, but I haven't yet found one that will work on the front If anyone knows what will work, let me know!!

[Justin86]

I would go with a one peice strut bar for the best results. You can make the 4g accord rear bars to fit with major mods to the brackets (welding, cutting, drilling)
I currently mod the rear bars for any one that wants one. I'm also working on a one peice front strut bar...........

[DeathRat]

I've just recently ordered a Ractive 86-89 Accord Front STB in Blue. I'll soon seen if it's still available or not, but assume so as I did get an updated price for it first from my supplier.

[accordredliner]

DC sports also has some nice strut bars for our 3Gs;]]

[rehv_Aerodeck86]

i know that dc and other aftermarket co's make struts, but there are two major problems for me: no money to spend on aftermarket stuff and no avaiability here in Estonia

so if i'm planning to make one myself´, it will be about 10$

[howndamane]

i envy you jsut for owning an aerodeck...strut bar or no strut bar...

[epic1400cs]

Oh I thought DC stopped making tower bar for ours. If they still making it then I should get one.

[shepherd79]

No one makes front or rear strut bars anymore.
if you want them, you have to look at market section on sticky threads. there is some one who custom makes them.

[epic1400cs]

No one makes front or rear strut bars anymore.
if you want them, you have to look at market section on sticky threads. there is some one who custom makes them.

Cheers. I thought that was only for the rear but now I understand that they do both.

[3gn86lxi]

o.k. here is one that works for the back, I have a front bar from a 90 and up accord, with the rear mounts modified for the back on my 86 lxi.
Havent fond one that will work on the front yet. It's much cheaper to but on e-bay, so I think I will try a civic strut bar to see if it fits.

[Justin86]

I make the bars, if you look at the thread. right now I just make the modded rear bars and a set of lower tie bars. I have been working on a front bar but have not had time to finish it.