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My concern with the lower brace and the caster mounts in general has always been the welded nuts they fasten into.
If you break or strip a nut it looks like a nightmare to fix, including the need to weld.
I've seen the BK bar before and like the design, good to hear it's being used successfully. If I were to add a brace I would probably go with theirs.
Blade - I'm not aware of the length of bolts or spacers but wouldn't be difficult to figure out if you were planning to custom build one.
What's been said seems to make sense, though some first hand experience of the benefits of the brace would be good before I fire up the welder.
That looks like a disaster just waiting to happen, those extended bolts are in shear under any load on that bar.
You are probably right. However looking at it for what it is, a motorsport development piece it must have been deemed effective. However they did not acount for years of abuse but for that one race season and included all service and inspection a race team have I guess longevity wasnt an issue for them.
Bumping this thread to show off the brace I made for my car today. I tried to keep the main bar close to the exhaust for better ground clearance and keep the brackets short for clearance and less flex. The bolts I used are 70mm long, size is M10 X 1.5 I also upgraded to grade 10.9 for better strength, the stock bolts are 8.8. I used two washers under each bolt for spacing. The bar is 1" diameter hollow steel. There's also a very slight bend for clearance where the bar crosses the wastegate. I'm also happy that I was able to make this in one piece for better rigidity.
Please excuse the rough appearance, the paint picked up the glare from outside sunlight, it's actually smoother than it looks.
I bought the Lindsey one as a Christmas present for my son (racer) who has pretty much everything.
We went to mount it (had never opened package until then) while doing a pre-race maintenance.
It was then I realized that by design, the profile of the end pieces that mount to the actual blocks and carry the bar, stand off way too far to be safe on track without tearing off the caster block threads.
Having had to repair a torn thread before, I just threw it back in the box and put it away in a storage cabinet.
I bought the Lindsey one as a Christmas present for my son (racer) who has pretty much everything.
We went to mount it (had never opened package until then) while doing a pre-race maintenance.
It was then I realized that by design, the profile of the end pieces that mount to the actual blocks and carry the bar, stand off way too far to be safe on track without tearing off the caster block threads.
Having had to repair a torn thread before, I just threw it back in the box and put it away in a storage cabinet.
T
Thanks. Yes I also noticed the clearance issue with some off-the-shelf braces. My car has fresh motor mounts so I was able to keep the bar high and tight.
That looks like a disaster just waiting to happen, those extended bolts are in shear under any load on that bar.
BK has a nice solution...but I wonder if you could make a sort of "horseshoe" plate to weld to the body (above the caster block) and then have a bolt-in bar between them...and still clear the exhaust?
12-19-2017, 07:10 AM
