Is an alignment required after installing a front strut brace?

 

No.

 

But there does seem to be some question (at least in my mind) as to whether it is better to install the strut brace with the front end loaded or to unload the towers by lifting the front of the car??

I installed mine with the front end loaded with weight (ie. wheels on the ground) and it did help but I'm not sure if this was right or not.

Marc

 

I was wondering about htis as well. I installed mine with the wheels on the ground, but if you install it with the front unloaded, surely you would need to re-do the geometry?

There's another current thread saying that a fixed length strut brace is too long to fit with the front loaded.

 

I know that when I had a brace on my 944 and then removed it before I sold the car I needed to get it realigned.

 

If the brace is connected to the bodywork rather than the struts themselves, then surely there's no need. The brace is simply preventing flexing of the mounting points rather than movement of the struts themselves.

 

Is it easy to fit one of these yourself, as it seems to me to be a good value for money upgrade. Just that with all these things, the parts can be cheap, but its the garage time that kills you..

 

Craig,

I fitted one just before my holiday in Scotland. Got it from Robmug - advancedcarproducts.com. It was a very easy fit (but you need to cut a pair of small holes into the front compartment carpet).

You need a small spanner and a large hex-key. It should take about 20mins or so.

I was sceptical about what it would do, but the difference was really noticeable - more front grip, less understeer (it never troubled me, but now it is pretty well absent), much better turn in.

It's not just for track days. Whilst people know Rob is a friend of mine, I don't recommend the idea for any other reason than the fact that it works. I have wondered about fitting one for years and now I wish I'd done it a long time ago.

 

I would install the strut brace with the car sitting on the ground, as that's the tower relationship you want to mantain. And as Bob said, no alignment needed.

 

John,

Thanks for the advice, I'm going to make this my next project.

Cheers !

 

How is the strutt brace only conected to the body work? The bolts you attached it too are part of the strut? And if so in't the purpose to stop the flex at this point?

On mine I just unsrewed these top bolts, fitted the brace and re bolted them, then tightend the brace in the middle.

Put the carpet back over the top, did notice a difference but when I posted about it on the Porsche Club Gb site one or two people belived it shouldn't make that much noticable difference.

But if its in the mind or no it feels better! LOL

 

If you think about it, aren't strut braces attached to the Upper Strut Tower Mount bolts and not the body? I know on my 944 I had a Weltmiester Brace and it used all four bolts on the Strut Mount. All the braces for 964's (except for Elephant Racings Triangular Brace) seen to use the two front mount bolts as thr tie-in. Am I blind or just mis-informed?

 

The purpose of the strut bar is to retain the alignment (primarily camber) as foreces are applied to the shock tower and it flexes. If you have your car aligned and it is sitting on level ground, then you would want to install the strut brace on the car making sure it is not binding. You will not need an alignment as the camber adjustment on the 964 is done at the bottom of the strut, and not on the top strut mount (unless you have the Motorsport or aftermarket adjustable ones). If you unweight the car, install the brace, then you may need an alignment to verify that you have not lost some camber due to the stiffening of the shock tower.

I would also add, that there is probably more flex in the upper rubber bushings of the stut than you'll ever see out of the movement of the shock tower themselves. Your camber changes significantly as the rubber bushing deflects.

 

Geoffrey's final paragraph makes the point I was angling at - you are still going to get movement in those bushings as those are not 'locked' by the strut brace.

 

Agreed, so in theory a strut brace on its own will have relatively little effect. In order to get the full benefit of having the towers locked together you also need to eliminate any movement from the shock top mount by using mono-*****. But at that point the car begins to become too harsh for day to day street use. This might be one of those cases where there isn't really a decent compromise. The Weltmeister strut brace for the 3.2 Carrera effectively incorporated a mono-ball as it mounted over the threaded shaft on the top of the shock. I haven't seen this type of brace for a 964. Do they exist ??

Jamie