Neon STB

[SHO Continental]

ok ok.. don't get on me about the repost... I did a search..

I HAVE this front neon STB for 95-99 neons.. and it's supposed to go in the rear of gen1/2 SHOs.. but.. I'm looking at the thing and I can't figure out how to get it in? I thought it just bolts right in? Can anyone give me some help? What's the trick? do I have to redrill?

 

[strings1732]

the bar has to be turned upside down. Use the picture below to help with putting the brackets on. Once you have both the brackets on, with the bar connected to one bracket, adjust BOTH sides of the bar to the length it needs to be and put it in place, the brackets will need to bend a slight amount but putting the bar up will take care of it for you. Once you have both ends of the bar into the bracket, and both bolts are holding it, tighten them down as tight as you can get it, with the allen wrench. In the directions under the picture, I said tighten down the brackets first, ignore that. Tighten down the brackets after you have gotten the bar in place, with the bolts holding it. Then tighten down the bar end bolts. If I had a picture of mine in the car, I'd show you but this is the best I can get. There is no need to redrill the holes if you install it the way that I described.

 

[SolidState]

sorry to dig this up, but wouldn't it be ideal to unload the rear suspension when installing the RSTB?

 

[SHObill]

Yea & will it fit around a factory sub-box with that offset?

 

[greenbeanmtx]

Yea & will it fit around a factory sub-box with that offset?

I didnt have my box in on my 93 but i dont think it will clear.

Just for the record though if a gen1 owner wants to do this it works but you have to cut half of the ring on the end off for it to clear because gen1's have a **** type bulge back there on the strut towers. I just cut close to the holes you use to mount it and that made it look like C's on the sides. Worked beautifully.

 

[DDakRT]

Yea & will it fit around a factory sub-box with that offset?

It does not clear.

 

[sho_bc]

I didnt have my box in on my 93 but i dont think it will clear.

Just for the record though if a gen1 owner wants to do this it works but you have to cut half of the ring on the end off for it to clear because gen1's have a **** type bulge back there on the strut towers. I just cut close to the holes you use to mount it and that made it look like C's on the sides. Worked beautifully.

I'm about to do this myself... just to be clear do you think you could quickly show this in a MS Painted photo of the bar?

 

[sho_bc]

sorry to dig this up, but wouldn't it be ideal to unload the rear suspension when installing the RSTB?

according to some of the people i talked to last night, its supposed to be loaded?

anyway, back to that photo posted above, do you use only the two inner bolts, and not the rear/outside one? and have the one marked with the red "x" sitting free between the strut towers?? or....? does anyone have any pics of it posted on their rear strut towers?

thanks

 

[SHO92]

I can't find my bookmark right now, but I have a BMW suspension tech article somewhere that talks about installing STBs. There is no need to pretension before installing, or either lengthening/shortening the bar after it is installed. The reason is that the point of the bar is to tie the shock towers together. The shock towers will be under tension sometimes, or compression sometimes, depending on the movement of the car. Therefore pretensioning the suspension/stbs will only account for 50% of the suspension movement. There is no way to both tension and compress the bars to account for 100% of suspension movement.

I hope I explained that correctly, but that is the jist of the article from what I remember. Others may be able to explain it better.

Edit: Here is the link that talks about the strut bar. http://e30m3performance.com/myths/Strutbar_Theory/strut_bar_theory.htm This talks about how the bar works, I must have read about actually installing the bar on the BMW forum that I got the link from originally.

 

[HoustinoJillian]

disclaimer: this post is purely for my understanding

it would make sense in my head to install the bar when the suspension is loaded (ie car sitting on the ground) because isn't this the position that you want the car to replicate when cornering (flat)? unloading the suspension would flex the body into a slightly unnatural state. when installing something with tension it owuld always tent to return to the state with least energy (if stretched it owuld want to compress, and vice versa). wouldnt installing with the suspension unloaded tend to make the brace favor a flexed position that unloads itself and therefore favor unloaded suspension? sorry if this doesnt make sense, just trying to make heads and tails of it myself

 

[SHO92]

It does make sense, but the fact is that the car operates in all different states. Therefore setting the bar up when the suspension is loaded doesn't help when the suspension is unloaded during driving(like cresting a hill). The same applies in the reverse.

The point of the article that I had was though although you can take the time to load the suspension first, it doesn't really matter.

 

[somedude_001]

well if you think about by pretentioning the bar/towers your modifying your alignment algles which is what your trying to preserve by using a STB in the first place.

 

[SolidState]

I haven't had my car aligned yet, but what you are saying makes sense...

 

[somedude_001]

no i'm not saying to get youre car line up after a install that is not necessary at all. all most people need to know is do not pretention and STB make your car handle better.

 

[greenbeanmtx]

I'm about to do this myself... just to be clear do you think you could quickly show this in a MS Painted photo of the bar?

Hey man im sooo sorry i never saw your post. Sorry it took so long to catch your question. I took the same pic above and airbrushed in pink what you cut off. If you need to ask me anything let me know. Ill be sure to check this thread again. This is what i had to do to get it to fit in my 89, however this alteration wasnt required on my 93.

 

[sho_bc]

awesome, thanks for the reply. what'd you use to cut it off?

 

[greenbeanmtx]

awesome, thanks for the reply. what'd you use to cut it off?

A little hand held grinder with a cut off blade from the local hardware store. Im sure a jigsaw with a metal cutting blade or a hack saw if youve got enough patience would be sufficient. It took all of about a minute to cut it with the cut off wheel.

 

[DDakRT]

Awesome illustration!

 

[greenbeanmtx]

Awesome illustration!

Thank ya, i tried putting buck teeth on the smiley but it got cut off in the pic. I thought the airbrush pink was a classy touch