hey everyone
i have a question about strut braces
i asked a company how the heim joints in their strut tower brace kept the towers
from flexing.
he said they "preload" the strut tower brace
i understand how preload works, what i dont get is how that keeps the heim joints from flexing with the tower.
the company is Total Control Products
thanks for your help

 

Not sure that I understand the question - a normal (single bar) strut tower brace will just keep one tower from flexing in/out relative to the other tower. Usually one tower is "loaded" and the other is not loaded, so it helps keeps things stable. It's not perfect, but it helps.

The next step up from that is usually to fully triangulate the towers, usually running a brace back to the center of the upper firewall from each side.

 

The strut towers take loads differently and in constantly changing ways. The idea is to spread the load over to the other side of the chassis to help take the pressure.

In a turn the load is going up from the additional weight and OUT from the leverage of the wheel against the balljoint/control arm. (outside wheel in turn). The towers take a load up and IN from normal front suspension loads that affect both wheels.(braking). Any brace will help, one that triangulates to the cowl will do the most.

 

thanks for the help
im just gonna custom make mine

 

Celica, you are right, a heim joint strut tower brace is not as rigid as a brace that uses at least two bolts to make a rigid joint.

Heim joint braces are good to allow adjustability for the difference in manufacturing tolerances between the tops of everyones strut towers.

One that is custom designed and rigidly bolted without heim joints will be much stiffer than one with heim joints.