Solid Strut Mounts?

JimMW

JimMW

autoxer
Has anyone here ever made their own solid strut mounts for an X? I've found myself questioning why not fabricate a thick piece of metal with studs added and a hole drilled for the strut shaft, and use as a replacement for the worn upper strut mounts. I know the ride would be harsher, though how much so I'm not sure. I assume it would be better in the corners though. I do know that replacement mounts are supposedly on the way as well from Mark Plaia and am kicking around this idea in the meantime.

The adjustable camber plates (LINKED HERE) look to be solid, so I don't see what the big deal would be to make the piece, but without the adjustment. My car is a weekend/autox toy only, so I think it would be livable. Would probably bump we into a different class for autox, but that's not really a worry.

I'd appreciate any feedback if anyone can speak from experience, and any possible risks to the vehicle by running such a setup.

As always, thanks!
 
Pivot point?

The mount couldn't be solid or fixed, it would need to have something like the spherical bearing on the MidwestBayless version. As the front suspension compresses and turns, the pivot would come into play. There may be a road noise consideration as well!

Just sayin'. :grouphug:
 
Thanks Gregory

I knew they pivoted but hadn't really thought about it. Matt's camber plate, and any other one I've seen, do have some sort of bearing. Adding something like that might be beyond my capabilities.

I'd still be interested in seeing if others have ever made something.
 
I built CC plates for my Scorpion...

out of Fox-body Ford (78-94 or so Mustang) CC plates. They incorporate a solid bearing. The Scorpion front strut towers are different of course, so I can't apply this directly to an X, but I can at least say that there is a very noticable difference in NVH (noise, vibration, harshness (or harmonics, I forget which)) between the "solid" car (Scorpion) and my rubber-suspended X.

It's not so bad that it's unusable on the street, but the combination of solid mounts and 250-lb springs (stock X/Scorp is like 175lb I think) makes for a lot of of minor jarring that I would never feel on a rubber-suspended car. How good (or bad) the roads are in your area should be a major factor in the decision to switch to solid mounts.

If you go down this road, a set of Plaia's doublers or something similar would probably be a very wise investment, since the strut towers will be seeing stresses greater than what the stock setup would show it.

Pete
 
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