I had noticed that the upper strut rods was against some tubes under the flooring, and the E-brake bracket. For a drag car that only see's 1/4 times, this may not be a problem. But for a long milage street car, I didn't want to have to worry about abrasion wear. So I modded the upper bracket to drop the strut rods down. I milled each boss down 3/8" of an inch with a 1" face mill. I left about .007"-.008" clearance on the sides for paint. So the heim is nested in there very nice. And it gives some gusset support for the bosses.
Also, the person I bought the brace from, had welded a stiffner in between the two bosses. But I had noticed the bar had a severe bow in it. So I straightened it as much as possible on the arbor press, and then machined it flat. This brace is very nice now.
Maybe DTE will see this and incorpate this idea into there braces. I think it's a good idea, and will give a little more room under the car for the strut rods.

 

We don't have that clearance problem on any of our differential struts that haven't been previously modified by someone else after it left our facility like your's had been- especially with it having bowed brackets from someone overheating the steel due to excessive welding from an added "stiffener" that it didn't even need...

Once our products ship from our facility and the owner (or previous owner in your case) chooses to modify the components from their original design, than all bets are off if the products fit properly anymore as they were originally designed.

 

You guys don't take feedback very good, do you? You can believe what you want. I have 10 years of fabrication, and 15 years of machining experience, and I know that welding that spacer between those two bosses DOES NOT effect the height of those two bosses. Even with the bow, because once it's bolted down ,it's flat again. And the bosses was still perpendicular as the day it was made.
I was only offering a friendly suggestion. I have seen someone else on here that had the exact same problem, and his wasn't welded on. I know there is a lot of stacked tolerances that make it clear one car, and not another? But if you find a couple cars with problems, shouldn't you address the issure, or just ignore it and tell the consumer it's there problem? I wasn't trying bad mouth your product, but there is always room for improvements in any product. Otherwise, we would all still be driving Model A fords. Sorry if I stepped on your ego.

 

Nice job!

 

Well this seemed to help a lot. It's still close to the E-brake brkt, but it least it's not againnt the fuel lines. As you can see in these pics how close it as after I milled 3/8" off, just imagnine how it was before the milling. I'm not sure what that big tube is above, but before it was half mashed. It's probably the transfer tube. My body must sit lower that others. I just wish DTE wouldn't take my post offensive. That wasn't my attention. You would think they would be concerned if there strut rods was against "any" car's fuel line, (Even if it just one car).
And the reason I posted this, was not to make DTE look bad in anyway. I think DTE makes awesome products. I just wanted to let people know to check the rods when the tranny is all the way up. And show DTE something that might could help the couple cars out of thousands that might have this problem. As I said, there is a lot of stacked tolerences here, that could give one car a half inch clearance, and another a 1/2 inch interference.

 

No egos here, just stating fact and merely pointing out obvious issues in that application that is *NOT* native to our product, as there are hundreds in operation all across the USA and abroad w/out issue. If you choose to take our factual statements in a negative way other than the way it was intended, then that's your prerogative, but don't make out what we stated to be anything other than what it is/was. It's that easy..

Have a nice day.

 

I'm not going to get into a pissing contest with you. You believe whatever you want. I belieive my pictures says enough.
You have a nice day too.

 

Nice mod RED99 I noticed some rubbing (red paint) above the upper rods also. I am going to lower mine also. Did you have to cut the rods due to the flatter angle?

 

No, I didn't have to do anything to the strut rods. Just milled some of the top bosses down.

 

RED99,

Nice job regarding the fabrication...

Your photos are very clear showing the modifications you made. Do you have photos showing the interference that forced your decision to make the modification you did?

 

DTE...there is a problem with the bracket in some year cars...4 people that we know of on the forum...

Here is the problem guys......and not trying to bash the product. The brace was bought from me....originally. On the 97-98 years the fuel crossover line is much larger than the 99+ years......the brace will rub....I sent pictures to Dynotech after the install....because this bothered me. I have since switched to newer tanks which have a different crossover tube...problem eliminated....

Also the bowing in the braket was not from heat made by the welding of the bar between the joints. When I put the recommended turns on the rods it actually bowed the bracket....I did notify Dynotech of this too!......The block was an attempt to re-enforce the bracket to liminate bowing....it worked somewhat but still bowed a little...

I am certain if you check your brace there will be some amount of bowing,....I have a friend with the same thing.........I too had to grind down the emergency brake bracket for clearance

Phil......dont get me wrong....still a great product need addition to the corvette world. Remember the call about the squeaky joint...and I bought a hardware kit??? It turned out to be the rod rubbing on the E-brake bracket..

There are variances in differences in all year vettes.....so items like this may pop up....

I highly recommend the bracket.......

Tom

 

The differential strut product was released to the public approx. 3 years ago, for which it had immediate success. The initial test fitments of all our strut products typically takes place over a number of different cars to validate correct fitment for the application, *before* the product is ever finally released.

About a full year after it's initial release for the A4, a couple of our customers (Tom included) called to let us know of a slight interference w/ the chassis on some applications, however random the occurance. We observed the issue and found that production tolerances for the vehicle are all over the board from GM, which is typical from production-line "hurry-up" output. Therefore, we made a slight change to the top transmission mounting bracket to alleviate the possible interference issue to accommodate those odd-ball cars and the problem has been corrected ever since..that was nearly 2 years ago now... The kit in these pictures is a very early design kit by the looks of it.

As far as the instructions go with regards to adjusting the strut rods~
When we first released the kits, we had instructions to adjust the strut rods to 1 1/4 turn past zero lash, as that was the best adjustment point we found that provided the best pre-load of of the product for the given application.

However, we soon found that most folks either didn't know how to follow our instructions on how to properly adjust the strut rods to our specs or they thought that "some is good, so more must be better" and they overtightened the strut rods to the point of differential failure or bracket damage.

We then changed our strut rod adjustment procedures a little lighter to accommodate those that don't like to follow directions and for those that like to over-torque things, no matter what the product is. Ever since we made those changes, the strut rod adjustment "issues" have resolved themselves.

We've not had issues with either topic for over 2 years now with the changes we've made to our product and instructions that better suits the DIY'er world.

 

Thanks Tom for backing me up.

 

Jim, I have to install one of the DTE Strut kits into a customers c5 next week. You are more than welcome to come and help In any case I will let you know how the install goes.

 

I wish you luck with it Tom, because if it doesn't fit, don't expect much help or consideration from the manufactor. There product is perfect, and we are all just a bunch of no nothings.

 

I'm in the process of installing mine. I think this is a good post to make people aware that it doesn't hurt to take a look at the clearance.

DTE makes very reputable products that I am happy to run on my car. This post shouldn't hurt their reputation. It makes us aware of a possible issue on some cars.

 

You are right, it doesn't and wasn't intended to hurt there reputation. But there comments sure isn't helping there customer service reputation.
So much for trying to show them what I thought was a good idea.

 

Like we stated already before now, we'll say it again in case you missed it~
"If you choose to take our factual statements in a negative way other than the way it was intended, then that's your prerogative, but don't make out what we stated to be anything other than what it is/was. It's that easy.."

Have a nice day.

 

 

WW, it`s gettin a little warm in here!

I have to agree with you on this one Red, the vendor makes great products but could have been more open to customer feedback on their products!