Front strut tower bar... and short shifter....help???

Epitaphrox · Post by **Epitaphrox** » Tue Oct 19, 2004 9:00 am

Look i know everyone on here knows how sweet the neon holds the road... no matter how bald your tires are... (whoops) so anyway i bought the parts on ebay.... anyone know how to install? the bar looks like it'd be just remove bolts add bar add bolts... any ideas????

noTe · Post by **noTe** » Tue Oct 19, 2004 10:33 am

What year/model do you have?

Your correct about the strut bar, just take the bolts off, adjust the strut bar and put it on, put the bolts back on and tighten well.

evlneon · Post by **evlneon** » Tue Oct 19, 2004 4:17 pm

randy is only partly correct about the strut bar...
basically, yes, take off the strut tower perch nuts, install bar, tighten bar, put nuts back on, tighten to torque spec. BUT, if you actually want the bar to be effective at all, you first need to put the car up on jacks before you do any of that.

noTe · Post by **noTe** » Tue Oct 19, 2004 4:31 pm

evlneon wrote:randy is only partly correct about the strut bar...
basically, yes, take off the strut tower perch nuts, install bar, tighten bar, put nuts back on, tighten to torque spec. BUT, if you actually want the bar to be effective at all, you first need to put the car up on jacks before you do any of that.

True. I was assuming he might already have coilovers or springs.

evlneon · Post by **evlneon** » Tue Oct 19, 2004 4:42 pm

noTe wrote:True. I was assuming he might already have coilovers or springs.

what the hell does that have to do with anything?

noTe · Post by **noTe** » Tue Oct 19, 2004 6:59 pm

evlneon wrote:
noTe wrote:True. I was assuming he might already have coilovers or springs.
what the hell does that have to do with anything?

Nevermind.

Post by **Vinny** » Tue Oct 19, 2004 11:36 pm

Jack the car up before installing the strut tie bar? I had never heard that one before. What is the advantage supposed to be? Seems to me like it would just hold the chassis in that flexed position screwing up the alignment and who knows what else. I'm not saying you're wrong, just that I'm not hip and don't see how it would help.

As for the shifter, installing it depends on what kind you got. Is it a whole shifter assembly, or just the shaft itself? The whole assembly ones just require the removal of the console, shift cable clips, and a few bolts while the replacement shafts require the complete dissasembly of the shifter mechanism.

Epitaphrox · Post by **Epitaphrox** » Wed Oct 20, 2004 10:15 am

I'm gonna take all of it to a garage... and have them install it all and it needs alignment anyway cuz i got new tires and the places rack was broken... so ive got new headlights, air filter, tower bar, and shortshifter to be put on... they'll do it for almost free anywayz...jeez i wish the automotive industry was like wal-mart....5 finger discounts...ohwell...

Epitaphrox · Post by **Epitaphrox** » Wed Oct 20, 2004 10:30 am

its a 1996 dodge neon (highline) 4 dr...
The short shifter is so far as i know just the shaft...(hope my shift knob will fit) anywayz the tower bar is a nameless brand i think... so yeah ebay is my only source of car parts except the over priced junk yard....

Post by **Diablo0** » Wed Oct 20, 2004 8:45 pm

Vinny wrote:Jack the car up before installing the strut tie bar? I had never heard that one before. What is the advantage supposed to be? Seems to me like it would just hold the chassis in that flexed position screwing up the alignment and who knows what else. I'm not saying you're wrong, just that I'm not hip and don't see how it would help.

Actually after thinking about it, thowing the alignment out would be minuscule . The flexing of the chassis wouldn't be great enough to affect it. But what flexing that would occur, when you did put the strut bar on and lower it down it kinda preloads the bar and puts initial stress on the bar so when you take a corner hard or what have you the towers wont' flex as much since the bar was initally being stressed when you lowered the car down. If you didn't preload the bar the bar still has the bar some room to move since there is not stress being put on the bar from the start, it's mainly just sitting ontop of the towers.

evlneon · Post by **evlneon** » Fri Oct 22, 2004 11:00 pm

Diablo0 wrote:Actually after thinking about it, thowing the alignment out would be minuscule . The flexing of the chassis wouldn't be great enough to affect it. But what flexing that would occur, when you did put the strut bar on and lower it down it kinda preloads the bar and puts initial stress on the bar so when you take a corner hard or what have you the towers wont' flex as much since the bar was initally being stressed when you lowered the car down. If you didn't preload the bar the bar still has the bar some room to move since there is not stress being put on the bar from the start, it's mainly just sitting ontop of the towers.

yea, that sounds about right. couldn't have said it better myself. no, really, i couldn't. i couldn't come up with the right wording so i asked jason to help me out.

but i would've said something smart to that affect if my brain would actually function properly on the subject of mechanics. which it hasn't been lately.

Front strut tower bar... and short shifter....help???

Front strut tower bar... and short shifter....help???

Well here's what ima do...

Oh yeah my year/make/model....