draab29

Just installed a new Rennline 3 point strut bar and was wondering if it is possible to overtension the strut bar? Thanks in advance

theiceman

i wouldn't imagine so. I don't think you could make a real difference by hand tightening. ( mine tightens by turning or twisting the bar, but without the 3 bolts loose for the alignment i can't see it making a huge difference.

But ya never know.

psychoideas

You really need to attach a digital protractor to one of your front wheels and then tighten the bar by hand. You will see on the protractor if you are altering the angle of the front towers/struts.

gunlover05

i have a elephant racing single strut bar...i need more camber than my stock plates pushed to the limit will give me, so i tightened down my strut brace to pull in a few tenths of a degree...shouldn't hurt a thing if that is what you want. Otherwise, instructions say to you feel a little tension, and turn bar by hand another 1/2 to 3/4 turn. It think i turned mine 1.5 turns or so...the Elephant brace, like their other products, seems very well built imo.

srf506

You can definitely move the camber through the strut bar, but I don't think you can put enough pressure on anything with it to permanatly "tweak" the chassis. But, the engineer in me says never say never until its been confirmed with data.

theiceman

Do you really think the camber can be adjusted with the srut bar with the adjustment bolts tight ? I think you would have to be leaning on that strut bar pretty hard..

gunlover05

yep, you can get a few tenths of a degree pretty easy with a torqued strut brace...i've heard 1mm of movement at the top of the strut = 0.1 degree of camber...not hard to twist in 2mm of overall movement...is that worth it for 0.2 tenths of a degree of camber? depends on how you use the car i guess..if you are camber starved and need it for AX/Track and can't make other mods, the answer is yes, if it is just for the street, probably not....torquing your sturt bar a resonable amount can't hurt anything on the car imo, unless your strut bar comes apart.

theiceman

Yeah I agree , my strut bar is aircraft aluminum and if I twist the bar with the trut towers tight I am sure it will strip out the adjustment on the bar.

ne ohio 911

I have a Rennline dual strut bar. When I took the car in for an alignment, the shop had to machine down both ends on each bar to get proper tension on the bar for proper alignment.

srf506

Remember, that bar is in effect at the end of a long lever, the strut. The strut is mounted in a big rubber bushing at the top so it has some complance and give anyway. I don't care if its made out of aluminium or titanium, you can apply enough force to move the top of the strut a few mm's w/o much strain. The aluminium bar may wallow out in a short amount of time, but until it does it'll move the suspension.

theiceman

Well i guess we could discuss the finer points of this infinitum.
The strut bar ( at least mine ) fastens to the body at a mount point for the strut , not the rubber bushing. The intent of the strut bar is to minimize body flex on cornering as the weight of the car shifts around and the lack of a firewall could alter the geometry of the two strut towers.
You would have a hard time convincing me that you could make any real difference in camber hand tightening your your bar while everything is fastened down without applying any real force. a coulple 0f mm in body flex maybe. But would it make a difference ? that is subjective and not worth discussing.
The purpose of the bar certainly eases fine tuning your suspension as you can loosen the strut bearing and twist the bar for adjustments in small increments.
A few MM at the long end of the lever divided by 2 remember ? it is p to each individual to decide I guess.

srf506

Yes, its attached to the body but through at least a 3/16" of rubber bushing. The strut can "squirm" in that bushing a few mms whether the bolts are completely tight or not. I'd believe you could move it even further if you loosened the mounting bolts first. But it might depend on the design of your strut brace and how its mounted. I'm refering to the simple ones that just tie the struts together. Statically, I've seen them move the camber fractions of degrees. Under dynamic load and with all of the other joints and bushings moving around Gawd knows. I'd actually imagine over time its not good for the strut or body as it imposes loads they really weren't designed for. Its a perception thing to me anyway. I think I could put our three drivers into the car with and w/o the bar and if the suspension were set correctly they'd have a hard time telling me which was which.

theiceman

..absolutely

psychoideas

I could be wrong, and I often am, as my wife tells me constantly,.......but............under extreme cornering loads doesn't the top of the outboard strut tower want to move out? If so the brace stops the towers from moving apart, not moving together. If this is true, the brace need not be screwed up under tension, it only needs to have all the slack taken out of it to stop the towers from speading.

I'll get my sword ready incase I have to throw myself on it................

theiceman

I don't think it much matters Frank, although I do think you are correct, cornering loads would force the inside strut out as more cornering load is loaded up. . The brace is designed to stop the struts from moving in general I think either way , and i think the original poster was just curios as to weather you could over tighten them. I have mine snug . Good enough for me.