Quote:
Originally Posted by Low Impedance
ill throw a grease pen on a few areas and see what happens
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It'll pivot there and not provide as much rigidity as a fully welded bar. It'll allow movement of the strut bars in motion with each other, IE: it will allow the struts to move independently and the energy transfer will not be as high as with a solid bar. That being said it will transfer some energy, to the point where it will stiffen the ride and I believe (though I haven't validated the claim) will cause under-steer on the corners (unless you place a similar bar in the rear).
As for the mechanics direct forces applied to the pin will transmit IE: x-axis and y-axis will easily transfer through the bar. Unfortunately a lot of the energy being produced in the turns is coming from Moments, things which will not transfer through the bar. As the car moves through the corner, the inner wheel will have a tendency to raise while the outer wheel will have a tendency to plant. A larger sway bar (by that I mean a bigger moment arm, so the sway bar end links would be a better thing to upgrade before the bar) will counter this and transfer some of the energy from the outer wheel to the inner wheel and forcing it to plant the inner wheel with added energy. As you continue to go through the corner the body starts to roll. A larger sway bar will counter this as will stiffer springs however the way our car is set up (in stock form) leaves an incomplete "box" to absorb the energy that will deform the suspension.
Installing the strut brace bar will keep the orthagonal forces in check, however any rotational forces about the pin will not be kept in check. This is the main benefit of a welded bar. The solid bar in effect distributes all the deforming energy to the wheels. This means more grip and less body roll (assuming you have a suspension setup to handle it). A three point welded or solid bar will provide even more resistance to deformation and thus provide more energy to the wheels.
Of consequence the pins in both sides will only stop the deforming orthagonal forces for so long. For principle I'm going to assume that the y-axis is strictly vertical and are the struts. When one strut is forced to ascend the y-axis (during a high-g turn) the location of the strut bar will want to move up as well before the tensile strength in the supporting members exerts the equaling force to push it back down. With a hinged strut bar the other side of the car isn't deforming (nearly as much) and so the bar is able to move up with strut around the fixed point of the bar on the opposite strut. This does nothing to quell the energy that is deforming the location of the struts and is not transmitting that energy to the wheels. This however is not the case with a solid or welded bar.
Just some food for thought.