The car was missing the driver side strut tower brace. I have one for that side now and was wondering how I should go about doing this so I don't mess up the alignment.
if you are talking about the...shock tower brace...it will not change the alignment when removing/replacing it...:Handshake
are you talking about the brace that goes from the firewall(at cowl), to the shock tower or the strut that goes from the lower control arm to the rad cradle. mounts under rad.
Although 71Gold said no about the loaded or unloaded part, I think it does make a difference. My Maverick (and I have worked on early Mustangs that act the same way) has an aftermarket brace setup............when the car is on the ground with the tires firmly planted it's easy to take off the bars.........but when you jack the car up and set it on jack stands you can't take the bars out......... why.............because the front end has flex'd. My car is tied together pretty well with cage and back half............but the front end still flex's. I have done this same thing to early Mustangs.............and the same thing happens..................the front does flex......................Now if I tied the front to the roll cage I think it would not flex...............................IMHO
And if it was driven for any length of time without it (the brace), I'd be inclined to think the holes wouldn't line up at all - loaded or unloaded.
When I got my car ('73. 302) it had no shock tower braces. no telling how lon they had been gone. I drove it =/- 1000 miles before ifound I needed the breaces. When I did get them, they slide right in to place with no problems. I had already borrowed a come-a-long to pull the shock towers together and didn't need it . Lucky me
It depends on the car. I've seen some Mustangs that you couldn't get the brace back on unless you spread the towers, some you had to pull together, some fit fine. My Maverick didn't have any on it when I got it, I didn't put them on until after I got the motor in and they lined up fine.
