As all of you know our mavericks have braces from the firewall to the shock towers. I'm running EFI which eliminates the use of the stock braces. I assume those are there to prevent the shock towers from "caving" in over time. It seems to me that a bar from shock tower to shock tower would more effective as that would resist those stresses better than the stock braces that are "at an angle" relative to the shock towers. What do you think. It would be a lot easier to build a bar from side to side then from the firewall to the shock tower.
The braces keep the wheel alignment stable, rather than variable... and they keep the towers from sagging in towards each other or flexing back to the firewall. I am a firm believer in braces. I have left them off and found out later just how much the towers had moved. And that was on a 75 model with the reinforced towers.
The way I see it, Ford would have saved a lot of money not making and installing them if they weren't necessary. You will always hear from those who seem to be able to fall into the outhouse and come out smelling like a rose that they have been running for ten years without them and the towers haven't moved but my money is on the majority of those who have found that the towers need the braces. The "Monte Carlo" bar between the fenders was in addition to the triangular bracing of the braces. Find a way to make some that fit - then add your Monte Carlo bar.
I absolutely agree, Ford wouldn't have put them there if they weren't needed. My uncle has a 66 fastback Mustang that was his first car back in the 70's. The car had been ran without braces for years by then and one day he hit a pot hole and the entire shock tower folded in on the engine, caused the car to swerve off the road and he damn near wrecked it.
Personally, I highly recommend them. Search "monte carlo" bars above. Most aftermarket (homemade) will work with EFI.
While the debate is open on using them or not, I never did and know a few that haven't either. Mine didn't have them, or I most likely would have ran them. As for the hitting a pothole and it caved in, do you really think the brace would have helped that much if it just caved in like that?
mavdog71 has the efi setup and uses something similar to scoopers. Yes the braces would have prevented them from caving because the shock tower braces support the TOP of the tower. with out them you only have the thick and powerful sheet metal and its top end spot welds holding the top of the tower in place.... yes that contains sarcasm
Scooper, I just stole those pics. I've been thinking about doing something like that. You just gave me the pattern.. Thanks
That is why I posted them. They are on my website as well. I got those from fan2488. He made a set for me, and one a little bit different for Rick Book who uses EFI. I wouldn't bother asking him to make anymore. He said that the tools used to make them wore out after making each set, and cost more than the bars are worth. But yeah, the design is pretty simple and stiffens the front up quite a bit. It now doesn't really matter WHERE I put my tools. When it is time to use them again, they are easily found on the floor under the car far enough away I cannot reach them. Or if I am lucky, they end up on top of some suspension part and I look for an hour around the car on the floor before finding that they only fell half way down.
very nice scooper, would like to have a set for EFI! I was really asking if the monte carlo bar could "replace" the factory braces as I also agree that something needs to be there. I'll probably try to do both. Can we get Rick and mavdog to post pics?
Yes. The towers wouldn't have collapsed if the car hadn't been run extensively without braces. I feel this is a worst case scenario. Most folks without braces will not end up like this, but rather only have small problems. Problems so minor that they deny they are caused by the lack of braces.
