You don't need a linear position sensor , you can do it with the strain gage (or load cell I think someone called it). It's apparent that many of you mechanical engineers have forgotten how to do statically indeterminite problems.

If you know the force applied the shock towers and you know the force applied to the strut brace (from the strain gage and a few simple calculations), and you know the displacement of the shock towers with the strut brace, you can find the modulus of elasticity of the shock towers, and thus the displacement of the shock towers without the strut brace.

I know this is probably more than some of you wanted to hear, but its useful information to some. So dig out your old Mechanics of Materials books and do the math (remeber PL/EI??).

If someone is willing to stick a strain gage on their strutbrace and run a skidpad, I'll even do the numbers for you. All I need to know is material of strut brace, ID and OD of the strut brace, length of the brace, time it takes you to go around the skidpad, the skidpad radius, and the upper and lower ball joint positions in the z-axiz with zero at ground level.

 

Couldn't a bar be made up with one half of the bar the size of the ID of the other bar, so that one bar slides inside the other. Then do your 1G turn and where the bars overlap have some material that leaves a trace of the movement like grease. You won't get a measure of the force but you could see the movement.

 

The shear is not an issue. We could suspend 3 911's into the air with the bolt we use. It has a shear strength of 9,940 Pound Feet (lbf) of strength.