Quote:
Originally Posted by Flieger
I had a fixed bar but somehow it came to be that the car couldn't be aligned with the bar in place so I went adjustable.
However, I am not so sure that the factory style will prevent buckling. Certainly in the horizontal plane it will be better, but in the vertical plane I think it is not going to resist buckling much.
The most rigid solution is a large diameter tube welded straight between the towers, as you'd see on full race cars.
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I don't understand why you couldn't align the car with the brace fitted as it shouldn't have any influence. I have been fitting strut braces to rally cars for more years than I will admit to and never had an issue with aligning the car.
It is important to fit the bars without preload as this will be a potential problem as the forces change and the bar then behaves as a spring and it an cause movement of the towers.
My objection isn't to making the bar adjust so it is easy to fit in a 'neutral' position it is the ability of the heim joint to misalign when the forces applied allow movement. The joint is designed to permit misalignment which is why it seems counter intuitive to use them for this application.
The ability of the bar to resist buckling is more to do with its second moment of area rather than clamping. Resistance to buckling is directly proportional to this property
If you weld a bar of the same diameter as the brace directly between the towers and then apply bending I am sure that the forces generated by the bolts will be great enough to allow the bar to flex in the same manner as if it were welded.
If you increase the diameter of the bar you will certainly reach a point where the bar is so stiff that the joint will fail or move.
I don't think you will see this level of force in any 'real' application but a 2" dia tube welded in place would be very stiff.