DIY - transmission brace
 

I may of posted this sometime in the past but while we are on the diffrential girdle I thought I'd toss it out there for those interested in making their own.

Very simple - 3/16" plate cut out to my template, heated and bent to fit. Holes drilled, bead blasted and painted. Installed it works like a charm and not too heavy to boot !

One thing I really like about it is you retain the oem crossbar support and you re-use the oem bolts :)

Enjoy

Later

From a guy who just spent a Saturday afternoon cleaning all the gunk from under my car after a bad coolant leak/explosion, that is one extremely clean undercarriage! I'm jealous.

Nice brace also. Have you driven it yet? I would think there would be some extra NVH from hard mounting it like that.

That looks like a nicely made brace. Well thought out to make it fit with the existing bolts & holes. Nice job.

My questions would be: Has it made any difference? The PPF is supposed to hold the tranny in place. Does this really do anything? Can you feel anything different?

Yes,did you notice any differences?

Looks good, as the other have said - noticed any improvement?

...oh and that damn clean under there!!

Yes, it is functional. It provides more accurate shifting, less transmission wobble. It strengths the whole driveline, prevent twisting of the PPF which leads to cracking. Helps prevent wheel hop during hard launches. Research transmission brace, or simply brace and ou will find a wealth of info.

There is more driveline noise transmitted to the cabon, but I cannot hear it over the Led Zeppelin 4 playing at 25 on the scale.

Later

u make a lot of cool stuff :(

Pretty nice :)

that is the cleanest 7 under body I have ever seen!

sooo.. how loud isit without music..

Not loud at all really, you can hear more of the metallic sound of the gears tramsmitted to the inside, but very tolerable.

Also I went in to my metal shop buddy and bought 6 more plates today. I'll work on them as I can and keep those above in tune.

Later

woooowww i did my a couple month back now and mine looks no where near as clean as that id be scared to go through a puddle. everything looks new. what year is your car? good job btw

this is how mine turned out

Attachment 704836
Attachment 704837
Attachment 704838
Attachment 704839

Lookin' good there Phaz.....


later

Damn Tom, do you actually drive that car on the street :lol:?
https://www.rx7club.com/attachment.p...3&d=1202828539

Yea Rich I get them out but only in good warm weather. You have to love working all the time - I get no time to enjoy these cars. I have a 525hp Z06 that I bought new with something like 6500 miles on it.




I keep them clean, detailed and running right.

thanks

later

Here is the process in pictures.... You all inspired me to go out and git er done....


Here they are cut out from the raw plate.

Now they are drilled and go thru the bending process.....

Then I went out under one of the cars and removed the trannsmission brace and fit tested every one of these new ones....and it was cold !

This shows the install process also..

Now they are painted and clear coated. Hanging like bats....time to go in for a hot bowl of homemade chili :) Yea I cook too

Installation steps.

1) raise your car and always keep safety in mind. I did not support the transmission as the top two 21mm nuts held it in place just fine, but you may want to.
2) remove the two leftside 12mm bolts holding on the aluminum crossbar
3) Loosen the right two 12MM bolts holding on the aluminum crossbar.
4) Remove the two rear 10mm bolts from the splash pan ( shame on you for not having a splash pan )
5) You should be able to pull the left side of the crossbar down about an inch.
6) Remove the two lower 21mm PPF nuts.
7) Shoehorn on the Transmission brace over the PPF studs and in between the crossbar. Put some never sieze on the threads and place the two nuts back on the PPF studs but do not tighten.
8) Put some never sieze on the threads and start both 12MM bolts back up thru the crossbar left side. Go thru the new brace and into the threaded bosses.
9) Tighten up the 12MM bolts until snug.
10) Tighten up the 21MM nuts until snug.
11) torque the 12MM bolts to 18 foot pounds
12) torque the 21mm nuts to 110 foot pounds.
13) tighten back up the right side of the crossbar.
14) tighten up the 10mm splash pan bolts.
15) lower the car and take it for a drive. Check the smoothness of the shifts.

Here is my best friend that helps me along the way with these mods. He is always at my side.

ive seen a similar one for sale on yahoo auctions, yours looks good. I guess it would work like a engine torque damper right? Just wondering if rubber washers were needed as the engine will probably put a lot of pressure on the tranny bolts and they might become loose? Right?

Would rubber washers stop the noise?

The only thing that I'd want to ask about is the load across just those two bolts. If the brace extended to the other side, that would negate the need for the OEM support and spread the load to the other side as well. Over time, will those bolts hold up to that stress?

Otherwise, it's nice and definitely the cleanest chassis I've seen.

Yes- I believe so. Reason I believe so is I have a single turbo 400hp 93 FD with the first brace on it and it's been there for 30k miles now and holding strong. Going over to the other side interferes with the exhaust somewhat, plus like I said, I don't believe it needs to.

I responded to the PMs, thanks



Later

And as the curtain pull back......whooola !!