Upper shock mount fit on chrome export brace

[miketyler 15]

I bought the chrome export brace for my car probably over a year ago and am just now fitting this thing. I have read about guys having to raise the car to bring holes into alignment but dont see that helping this issue. The upper shock mount fittings dont nest well into the export brace. Do you guys bend the ears up on the fittings or ? One side is worse than the other but has extreme gaposis when the holes are aligned up.

 

Bad brace or are they all like this?

[fordguy69 24]

Shock towers move around a lot over the years! I have had to use a porta power to spread shock towers enough to get export braces on. Sometimes helps to leave it real loose at firewall and work on the shock towers first. And no matter what, get your front end aligned after you install it.

[miketyler 15]

I'm not even aligning the body yet. I am talking about the alignment of the holes in the export brace to the holes in the shock fittings.

[BuckeyeDemon 211]

i don't have the chrome version so i don't know if this is applicable.

 

the only issue i had was some interference at the ribbing and the cap (where my finger is pointing). same issue on both sides. i had to grind a little on the cap so it would lay flush. fortunately for me, i was able to just phosphate them again.

 

 

[70mstang 11]

I got the aftermarket chrome export & chrome shock brakets. It was very difficult to get the holes to line up. I eventually was able to get the bolts through the holes enough to where I could get a wrench on them and torque em down and the export brace & the shock towers moved around enough to where things lined up.

 

One thing that set me back a bit was that the aftermarket vendors have a "kit" for the chrome shock tower brakets. The nuts & bolts they send are the locking type so if you wanted to remove them, you'd have to cut off the bolt. Well, not knowing that I had snugged up the bolts just to align the brace and ended up having to cut them off. Not sure what they were thinking cause eventually I need to replace the schocks and I don't want to cut off the bolts every time. So I got an original type, not chrome, and they aren't the locking type. Just not chrome.

[miketyler 15]

I will probably have to grind the ears down on the shock mount fittings to get them out of the radius of the export brace. Doing this will leave little edge distance on the holes. If this were an airplane that would not be kosher. Might be able to bend them so it conforms to the contour of the brace.

 

Its such a fundamental part of the install, hard to see how they could get that wrong. The shock mounts are OEM BTW.

Edited January 15, 2012 by miketyler

[Lemon Owner 11]

Fundamental mistakes are what makes the repo market go round. You just keep having to buying stuff to fix the poor quality which keeps the market alive and well.

[miketyler 15]

Well the hits just keep rolling in here with this lousy fitting export brace.

 

I have the car on jacks but is lifted under the a-arms so the weight is on the suspension. The holes all line up really nice but the ends of the export brace arms don't mate up to the top of the shock tower. It seems bent to a different angle such that the inboard bolt on either side is barely long enough to poke thru.

 

The brace is pretty rigid and I dont think these bolts are strong enough to draw the brace down to the top of the shock tower. Have you guys seen such an issue before?

[MikeStang 247]

Send the brace back, it's crap....got your original you can bolt on to see how it fits?

[buening 63]

Likely too far out from purchase date to send it back. You should be able to snug the bolts down. I'm using standard stainless carriage bolts (likely grade 2) with the rounded head ground down a bit (too deep of concave head) so it'd fit in the slotted holes in the towers, and my chrome export brace fit like that and I snugged it down just fine. Tighten each a turn or two at a time so it gradually gets clamped down, rather than tightening one down fully before going to the next.

[miketyler 15]

You are right there. Was one of the first things i bought for the car over a year ago.Am using the stainless kit from amk products and sheared one of the bolts off. That thing is really going to be loaded. Did you try bending it to relieve it?

[buening 63]

Nah I never tried bending it. I'm surprised you sheared a bolt off. Was that while tightening it down?

[miketyler 15]

Yes, I forgot the anti-seize. Maybe lubing the threads will help.

[etel64 10]

Sooo in agreement with Lemon. But then again it is our inginuity that sets us apart from the rest of the knucklebusters.

 

I installed mine with the jack stands way to the rear of the shock towers. This let the body flex down so the holes would be closer. they where at least 3/4 of the hole misaligned. Loose at the firewall helped a lot. Then with an Alignment pin I pryed into align. I dropped the grade 5 bolts in and snugged them.

 

I didnt have theshock braket to make things worse since I had a TCP coil over setup.

 

Just my 2c worth.

[miketyler 15]

Understood, however hole alignment is nearly perfect. No complaints there whatsoever. It's the shape of the ends that are causing fitment issues.

[1969 Mach1 14]

miketyler,

 

I had issues getting the holes in the shock towers to line up with my used OEM shock tower brace. I found an article for installing these things that worked for me. First loosen all but the most front and most rear upper fender mounting bolts. Second, jack up the front of the car with two jacks, one on each side where the lower control arms mount to the frame. Lifting at these locations allows the upper portion of the shock towers to move outward. The holes then lined up and tightening the export brace bolts closed up any gaps and pulled everything together. I also added an adjustable Monte Carlo Bar by Global West to take some load off the export brace.

 

As far as your upper shock mounts not fitting into the export brace is just a poor quality repro brace. You might have to pop for the OEM repro. I have seen those fit ok.

[Big Secz 26]

Just my 2 cents. You mentioned the car was jacked up. I would get the nuts to the bolts on the export brace snugged down, then when you lower the car it may put enough weight and flext in the bod to push the shock tower up flush with the export brace. I installed the chrome export brace with crome caps while the car was on the ground and enver had a problem.

[miketyler 15]

Thanks for all the responses. I was able to get past all the issues. I did have to grind down the edges of the shock mount fittings and then radius the bottom edge so it nested nicely into the export brace. I was able to get a c-clamp down inside the shock tower and draw the inboard side of the fitting and brace down to the top of the shock tower. I did use anti-sieze on the stainless bolts.

 

One last thing, I bought the AMK stainless kit for this and found that the carriage bolts arent long enough to come past the nylock. In aviation to be legal should have at least one thread past the nylock. Now I know this isnt an airplane but any of you have the same experience?

[miketyler 15]

I think I answered my own question. The aftermarket brace is more than twice the thickness of the OEM braces. The kit is probably made for the OEM braces, not the thicker one-piece unit.