i have a 97 coupe and im having trouble getting a neuspeed front upper strut to fit on to my car. i can get the bar to fit just fine on one side of the car but on the opposite the wholes will not line up at all. i took off all four bolts and ran in to this problem. this is my first post.

pic of driver side

pic of passenger side fits fine

 

jack up the front of the car and watch as the holes get closer to lining up.
Then if you push on the bar a little (towards the other side) the bar will slip on.

just beware, if you jack up the car with those nuts removed, the shocks will drop out of the holes. Just jack it up enough so there is no tension on the shocks, but the tires are still on the ground and the studs still stick through the holes enough to get the nut back on.

 

Yeah...jack the car up a bit.

 

wow! i have the same bar on a 96 coupe and it almost installed itself i didnt have to jack the car up at all, took the nuts off the studs, set one side in place and had to push inward just slightly to get the other side on. car ever been wrecked?

 

you must use the force young skywalker...

 

indeed master yoda, or are you my father?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by nub &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">indeed master yoda, or are you my father? </TD></TR></TABLE>

lol, but seriously i had 2 of those bars on 2 different civics and i had to force them on, helps if you have a friend on the other side...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ej ate &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i have a 97 coupe and im having trouble getting a neuspeed front upper strut to fit on to my car. i can get the bar to fit just fine on one side of the car but on the opposite the wholes will not line up at all. i took off all four bolts and ran in to this problem. this is my first post. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Jacking the car up will alleviate the problem to a very slight degree, but I seriously doubt it will be enough (and if it is then the chassis has a serious problem with being too soft, a crack somewhere or a number of popped spot welds, or somethig of that nature).

I suspect your car has accident damage causing one or both towers to be inboard of the design location, or that over time heavy loadings have caused the towers to bend inward toward each other. Either that or the tower bar is out of spec...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by blinx9900 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">lol, but seriously i had 2 of those bars on 2 different civics and i had to force them on, helps if you have a friend on the other side...</TD></TR></TABLE>

You shouldn't have to pre-load the tower bar just to fit it, and if you can flex it to take up what looks to be nearly an inch of misalignment, then it suggets that the tower bar is too flexible to be of much use in any case...

If the holes in the brace (through which the strut studs pass through) are a close match to the stud OD, then because the tops of the struts are not horizontal you would expect some difficulty fitting the bar unless you lowered one of the struts (the second strut after fitting it to the first on the other side), and then raised the strut with the brace in position. The misalignment with that brace is huge though...

 

from what im reading im thinking the car was in a accident but im not for sure. i know it has a clean title. but yea the studs are way off for the bar. i will try this bar on another civic and see how that goes. ill also try jacking the car up and try again.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ej ate &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">from what im reading im thinking the car was in a accident but im not for sure. i know it has a clean title. but yea the studs are way off for the bar. i will try this bar on another civic and see how that goes. ill also try jacking the car up and try again. </TD></TR></TABLE>
If you car has accident damage or the towers have moved inward over time due to repeated heavy loadings, then unless your car has had the camber adjusted with camber adjusters, I'd expect your camber to be significantly negative. This might mean the camber is outside the stock range (which isn't of itself a bad thing unless it's a long way out of stock range).

If the camber is 'un-adjusted' but still 'excessively' negative, though more or less equal both sides, then it tends to suggest that the towers have moved together over time, rather than accident damage, which I'd expect to be more evident on one side more than the other (though even if the camber is equal this doesn't rule out accident damage).

If you jacked the car up and the tower bar just droped on (or even if you can fit it at all without flexing the bar a lot), then I'd be seriously worried about the integrity of the chassis. This would indicate that the chassis is very unsound, and the tower bar won't fix this.

If you can flex the tower bar at all, I'd think about finding a better one. I can't see the whole bar in your photo, but it does look like it has a substantial bend(s) in it, and bends in the bar seriously compromise the rigidity of the bar, seriously impairing it's effectiveness.

If you can fit one that isn't bent (without hitting the plenum or whatever), then this would be much better than a bent tower bar, but if you can't then the bent bar must be very substantial in order to be rigid enough (i.e. large OD and thick wall).

Two relatively small OD tubes (as your's seems to have) are not likely to be nearly as rigid in compression and tension as one large OD tube. The rigidity of any brackets (that allow a bar to be fitted to the towers) is also as important as the bar rigidity itself. Any brackets must be robust in construction, i.e. well designed and made from reasoanbly thick steel plate (at least 4mm thick plate), not thin sheet.

It makes no difference to tower bar rigidity in compression and tension (which is all that matters) whether the tower bar is a 'single piece' welded up unit or bolted together with two brackets and a tube, nor whether there is only one bolt at each bracket / tube connection or two.





Modified by johnlear at 10:53 PM 2/16/2008

 

mine didn't line up at all until I jacked up my car, then it fell into place.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Dark@Powers &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">mine didn't line up at all until I jacked up my car, then it fell into place.</TD></TR></TABLE>
How much did the towers spread when you jacked up the car?

With my CB7 it would be in the order of 1mm or so. If it's a lot more than this I'd be a bit worried, the stock chassis may not be particularly rigid between the towers, but it's not ridiculously flexible, or shouldn't be...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by johnlear &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

You shouldn't have to pre-load the tower bar just to fit it, and if you can flex it to take up what looks to be nearly an inch of misalignment, then it suggets that the tower bar is too flexible to be of much use in any case...

If the holes in the brace (through which the strut studs pass through) are a close match to the stud OD, then because the tops of the struts are not horizontal you would expect some difficulty fitting the bar unless you lowered one of the struts (the second strut after fitting it to the first on the other side), and then raised the strut with the brace in position. The misalignment with that brace is huge though...</TD></TR></TABLE>

mine was about a 1/4" off, you need to put all 4 sides on at the same time to make easier...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by blinx9900 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> mine was about a 1/4" off, you need to put all 4 sides on at the same time to make easier...</TD></TR></TABLE>
Yes, but no easier than fitting one side first, then jacking up the front of the car to lower the other upper spring seat in order to lower the studs on that seat.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by johnlear &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
Yes, but no easier than fitting one side first, then jacking up the front of the car to lower the other upper spring seat in order to lower the studs on that seat. </TD></TR></TABLE>

agreed, i cant believe we have such a long thread on how to install a strut bar though...