Suspension / ChassisQuestions about your suspension? Need chassis advice?
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I just finished installing an Edelbrock strut tower brace on my 1989 GTA and thought I would pass on some tips from this experience. The day before I had new motor and transmission mounts installed so the engine sits correctly in the engine compartment.
My mechanic and I followed the instructions and assembled everything loosely according to the diagram supplied with the brace. The following are the tips I can pass on:
1. The brace does not fit under the GTA hood without removing the felt pad and modifying the hood support structure. This occurred even after lowering the brace as much as possible in the slots in the two pieces that bolt onto the strut tower. Make sure there is enough room between the bottom of the brace and the top of the TPI plenum so that the plenum does not rub on the brace when you rev the engine.
2. We moved the two bars of the brace, that triangulate the brace to the firewall, from above the brace and the firewall to below the brace and firewall. This stopped the felt pad and underside of the hood from rubbing on the two bars.
3. The underside of the hood rubs on the brace. A good way to determine exactly where is to get a few pieces of Scotch tap and loop each piece together and place a piece of paper on each loop. Then place these loops down on the brace with the paper side down on the brace where you think the brace may rub on the underside of the hood. Then close the hood and the Scotch tape loops will stick to the underside of the hood and when you open the hood you will know where to cut away parts of the support structure. My mechanic used a cutting wheel in his air drill. After cutting away the pieces I again used the tape loops to fine tune where a few scratches had showed up on the brace from the underside of the hood. This time I used a grinding wheel in my drill to grind down the portions of the support structure that still rubbed.
4. The bolts, that secure the brace to the two bars that triangulate the brace to the firewall, rubbed on the underside of the hood where the support structure had been cut away. First, I removed the washers under the bolts on the top of the brace. This lowered the bolts a little but not enough. Then I corrected the rubbing by buying a metal counter sinking bit for my drill and counter sinking the holes that these two bolts sit in. This ended up lowering the bolts into the brace enough so that the bolts no longer rubbed on the underside of the hood.
5. Finally I got some gloss black spray paint and sprayed enough in a container and with a small paint brush touched up a few scratches on the brace.
I can report a noticeable improvement in steering with this brace and car feels firmer. I also have a TDS steering brace underneath the car, which also helps. I may consider subframe connectors next.
I wished Edelbrock had designed these braces to fit under GTA hoods without removing the felt pad and the need to cut away part of the hood support structure. However, the brace does improve handling noticeably.
Hope this helps others installing these braces on firebirds and GTA’s.
Sorry I never think to check peoples' profiles and stuff. Did you ever have problems closing the hood over the intake? I was told there wouldn't be room with carbd 350's under the hood unless you got a shorter filter or drop-base air cleaner.
I had an Edelbrock one on my 87 GTA & went through the same hood brace problem. Solved it with red paint dabbed on wet, closed the hood & used the paint marks to know where to beat the hood brace in. Disn't cut anything.
Then I was the "guinea pig" for UMI Performance, to verify the "bad fit" of theirs under a GTA hood. MORE hammering & some avctual cutting this time & the UMI one fit.
Unfortunately, I set it as low as possible, to minimize the hood problem. Well, the TPI plenum rubbed on the brace & got a groove in the plenum. I ended up taking the brace off, sanding down the top of the plenum until all evidence of the groove was gone *maybe 1/16" deep total), adjusted the brace up higher, cut out some MORE underhood bracing, put the UMI brace back in......And now everything is happy.
The GTA hood is the problem with the UMI brace. With the other hoods, UMI has never received a complaint about.
I noticed an improvement with the steering. I feels more precise. When you turn the steering wheel the wheels seem to react quicker. Also, the body does not seem to roll as much when going around a corner.
I have the same strut tower brace on my 83 trans am. The only problem i had was i had to take off the windshield washer pump from the wiper motor and use an in tank pump instead.
