Dr. No

I just got the OEM cup strut brace from Sunset Porsche (good price and very promptly delivered, BTW). Had done searches about how easy this was to put in. Got all excited to install it, and then . . .

I noticed that the two black triangular pieces, which attach to the strut tower bolts, are not symmetrical. One faces one way and one faces the other. Is that right? I tried to search for pictures of the part and the install and can't tell if it's supposed to be this way or not.

Also, my searches have scared the @#$% out of me about stripping the bolts. So for the really stupid bonus question: Do you turn the nuts clockwise or counter-clockwise to loosen them? Please don't make fun of me, my first DIY was the "front license plate delete".

faster

always remember, righty tighty --- lefty loosey. recommend a torque wrench for installation, just pay attention to the torque values and in.lbs. vs. ft lbs.

Conekilr

Lefie Loosie, Righty Tighty....^^^ Yea what he said...

Dr. No

You know, I should have remembered that from a Dana Carvey Saturday Night Live sketch, but then, Porsche part, metric, upside down -- thought I'd ask.

InTheAir

Doc, you do have a torque wrench, right? Those 13mm nuts need to be retorqued to about 24 ft.lbs (some installs state 18 ft.lbs).

Mark in Baltimore

I wouldn't go past 18 ft/lbs. IIRC, Robin's site says 24.

InTheAir

Yup, Porsche says 24 ft lbs, but mine are 18 ft lbs. You ask why? While installing my suspension and torqueing to 24 ft lbs, I ~sheared~ the stud off. Viperbob had to send me a whole new perch--$135 or so. VB said that he has seen this happen before, even torqueing to Porsche specs....perhaps metal fatique.

Moral of story, you need to torque those nuts, but not too much.

Robin 993DX

Yes the specs calls for 24 ft lb, but make sure you have a low end spec. torque wrench. In other words a torque wrench that can go up to 120 ft lb is not very accurate on the low end spectrum of the torque range. If anyone is doing a lot of torque by spec. then I really suggest you have at least 3 torque wrenches, 1 for low, mid and hig.

I also had one stud broke off on me, now I just torque them by hand even after buying a torque wrench specifically for low end torque value.

Brave Heart

Oh Dear I'm sure Dr No didn't want to hear that so early in his Pcar career !!

Bill Verburg

Here is an oem 993 Cup car

Paul902

Also be careful starting the nuts...I put one of mine on a bit ****-eyed and it buggered up the threads a bit before I felt that it was going on crooked. I was able to fix it with a die, thankfully. The material for the studs is very soft and with the addition of the strut brace you do not have very many protruding tread turns to work with. Hence, it is easy to get yourself in trouble. To avoid my mistake I would start tightening them with a light ratchet, and finish up with the torque wrench. I think the heavy weight of the torque wrench masked the fact that my nut was going on crooked.

viperbob

Also an important note. When installing a strut brace you will notice that the nut does not fully contact all the threads anymore on the mount due to the increase in height from the brace. You can even see this in Bill's image. So you have to be even more careful when tightening as it is easy to strip. If you go over 17-18 lbs on these, you can very easily have issues.

Dr. No

Thanks for all the responses. Since I don't have a torque wrench I did it carefully by hand.

But Bill Verburg's picture is the one that concerns me. On my brace, the piece that attaches to the studs on the right (driver) side "faces" the other way so that the nuts are not visible from the front. It's as if they put two of the passenger side end pieces on, not a "driver" and a "passenger." I must have a bad part, right?

Brave Heart

Can you post a photo ??

Don Plumley

The strut brace mounts are paired - there is a left and right. What you have described sounds wrong. Here's mine from a distance so you can see both sides:



As you can see, the mounts are mirror images.