Design and Make: Strut Brace

[Cricketboy]

Hey guys, after chirstmas i have a uni module in which i have to design and make a component. I will be doing this in a metal workshop, with access to usual workshop stuff. I was thinking of producing a front upper strut brace for my K11. I have 21 hours to fully complete the build

After looking on the internet for a few hours now, i know that there are many designs, however i think an adjustable one would be safest to make. First things first, how do I go about designing my own adjustable strut brace? I have drawn a few very rough sketches with ideas of how to attach the actual bar to the top of the suspension. However where do I start on this?

(Bit about me. Im a First year MEng Motorsport Engineering student at UClan, Preston)

 

[superls]

best place to start is by looking how other people (manufacturers) do this,

id say convention is a dohnut shape plate that bolts onto the strut top then the bar welded to that.

the adjustable bit might need more thinking about

id say you would be better making a fixed one.

 

[Cricketboy]

The module is a design a build project. So i have to make something from scratch. I now that the ring is bolted to the strut top, and the bar is welded onto the ring, using a bracket. The adjustable bit i can get help with from my lecturers.

I think if i cut the bar in half. Give one end a thread, then on the other attach a bearing, washers n what not and a locking nut, i could have an adjustable bar.

However does anyone know what the distance is between the strut tops? and dimensions like where to drill holes to blot the rings to the strut?

 

[joshbl]

Bit off topic, but what is the motorsport department like at UCL? Cos I'm currently doing my Brighton university motorsport engineering degree at northbrook college. Just curious

 

[markbognor]

Surely you could have gone out to the car with your tape measure in hand and measured the distance between the strut tops, and top mount bolts faster than it took to post the question.

Just a strut brace doesn't sound like 21 hours work to me. Have you OK'd it as a project with a lecturer first?

As others have said, two rings with holes to suit the top mount bolts, some tube to go between them, you could mitre the tube to get the angles and cross peice, or a neater solution would be to bend the tube at the ends. The adjustment would be achieved with a turnbuckle, you could weld a nut to a peice of bar, with a rh thread on one end and a lh thread on the other. Cut the cross bar and weld in the two threaded insets that you have made with the coresponding lh and rh thread, this gives you the adjustment out and in.

You could manufacture two turnbuckles and sets of inserts and fab an adjustable panhard rod as well.

Top and lower strut brace and adjustable panhard rod sound like a good 20+ hour project to me.

 

[Shaun]

Surely you could have gone out to the car with your tape measure in hand and measured the distance between the strut tops, and top mount bolts faster than it took to post the question.

Just a strut brace doesn't sound like 21 hours work to me. Have you OK'd it as a project with a lecturer first?

As others have said, two rings with holes to suit the top mount bolts, some tube to go between them, you could mitre the tube to get the angles and cross peice, or a neater solution would be to bend the tube at the ends. The adjustment would be achieved with a turnbuckle, you could weld a nut to a peice of bar, with a rh thread on one end and a lh thread on the other. Cut the cross bar and weld in the two threaded insets that you have made with the coresponding lh and rh thread, this gives you the adjustment out and in.

You could manufacture two turnbuckles and sets of inserts and fab an adjustable panhard rod as well.

Top and lower strut brace and adjustable panhard rod sound like a good 20+ hour project to me.

How much you charging Mark? :blush:

Sounds like a good project. If he made all the handling package (bar actual suspension components)

 

[markbognor]

Lol, if only I had the 21 hours!

 

[Shaun]

Lol, if only I had the 21 hours!

Get some time then! i'm sure you would make some good monies! (Y)

 

[Cricketboy]

I have only previously experianced the manufacturing techniques a handfull amoutn of times before. I am a first year. I have my design now just need dimesions of the strut top and spacing between the two struts. anyone got any dimensions? thanks