I looked on the internet but didn't find anyone who makes it. I figured that there are sooooo many aftermarket companies that make parts for these cars that if they make them for the front they might make them for the rear too. Thanks for any replies to this thread, Paul Moore

 

iirc, it is not necessary to have one for the back as where the shocks are is not a stress point

 

Well, I know that the panhard bar and track bar/body brace whatever you want to call it take the majority of the torsional load placed on the rear when cornering. With alot of these cars being autocrossed/road raced I figured that someone would have made a piece for it to eliminate any 'excessive' body strees in that area. Say for instance you were taking a hard left turn.The right side of the car would be planted, and the right side of the car would lift and transfer it's energy to the right side. Since the spring and the shock are being compressed on the right side, and unloaded on the left side, wouldn't there be any body deflection at the topmost point of the shock tower? The job of the rear swaybar is to keep the body roll to a minimum, but there should still be SOME chassis deflection, right? I'm no expert at all, all of my experience is with FWD cars like my sunbird, but they are different animals. I just figured the f cars could benefit from connecting the shock towers.

 

You can try something like this https://www.thirdgen.org/newdesign/t...amebrace.shtml It's basically a brace that goes between the two rear shoulder seat belt mounts. Not quite your shock mounts, but close.

 

I think Revlimit made one too. Try pming him for more info.

 

Thanks for all the info!!

 

......Say for instance you were taking a hard left turn.The right side of the car would be planted, and the right side of the car would lift and transfer it's energy to the right side. Since the spring and the shock are being compressed on the right side, and unloaded on the left side, wouldn't there be any body deflection at the topmost point of the shock tower? The job of the rear swaybar is to keep the body roll to a minimum, but there should still be SOME chassis deflection, right? I'm no expert at all, all of my experience is with FWD cars like my sunbird, but they are different animals. I just figured the f cars could benefit from connecting the shock towers. [/B][/QUOTE]

While I am no expert either, I think the BIG reason for a brace on the front struts is to keep them properly located away from each other,(laterally), while the shock, being perpendicular to the axle, takes a large load vertically, but not a lot of lateral load. The front struts control your camber, and when cornering there is a large lateral load, so you need something extra to keep them properly located.

I hope this helps, it seemed to make sense while my fingers were tapping it out.

 

All of the loading from the shock is essentially vertical. Also a shock is a damper and so is any deflection of the car. There is no reason to reinforce the "shock towers" unless your going to do something stupid and run air shocks.

 

What I meant to get across is that there are probably no companies making a shock brace or reinforcement because it is unnecessary. There is no lateral (or horizontal) load in that section of the suspension. I guess I got caught up in the moment.

 

You don't need it for shocks because as i said before its a damper, that sees relatively light loads. Now struts are different they are a spring and damper together, so the loads are higher. Now they should be added to cars with IRS and struts back there.

 

https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...llar+and+brace


I fabbed up a rear brace to see if it made any difference in the convertible. Fitted it to the top of the b-pillar where the seat belts attach in the vert. Made a fairly decent change, felt more solid, smoother cornering. So....not exactly a shock tower brace. So it was not a "jaw-dropping" experience, but I think it was worth the $30 to make.