Floobydust

Yes folks, I'm back on a quest for unobtanium. Since I have a Cabriolet, I also have a bit of cowl shake because the car is, after all, a cut down coupe. It occurred to me that the additional stiffness of a strut brace might mellow that out a bit. A little searching showed that these are somewhat rare and hard to find, so I thought I would throw a feeler out there. Anyone with one that is taking up space on the garage floor?

Thanks in advance,

- FD

RBYCC

Do a search on Benz World..
About ten+ of us have strut braces on order that are being custom made.

Not sure if a strut brace will help you..
Obvious that you have something seriously wrong if you realize cowl shake.

I have a 94 A124 and it is as solid as my 1988 C124.

Do you have the dampener installed on top of your shock tower ?

Ed A.

Floobydust

Ed -

Thanks, I will search that.

The cowl shake I'm referring to is bump related not speed related. As with any convertible the body just doesn't have as much torsional rigidity, so there is some body flex over bumps. My SL also has a bit of this too, and in fact, the e320 is actually a little tighter than the SL is with the hard top off. I just wanted to see if I could reduce it further.

The rubber anti-vibration damper is in place and the rubber "spider" is in tact. The wheels/tires are new & balanced.

WDB124066

I had a wobble in the blue car and it was really bugging me. I bought another car exactly the same but with 40,000 miles on it, IT DOESN'T WOBBLE like the blue car . So, I am now of the opinion the wobble is suspension, bushes and shock related - NOT chassis design related.

If you are up over 100,000 miles I would be looking at suspension components to reduce the wobble AND possibly a more compliant tyre - this is from first hand experience. Green car is on P6's, Blue is on Conti Comfort Contact-1's, standard sizes for Sportline cars. Bog standard cars the pair of them, RHD so not even a vibration damper on the suspension turret.

ps2cho

Check out your sway bar bushings. When I replaced mine it had a very significant difference in the way the car was on corners.

Floobydust

I checked out that thread. I had found that thread before when I was doing some initial searching. I didn't follow up at that time (in spite of how cool that strut brace looks) because there didn't seem to be a version for the Cabriolet. After a little more research, it looks like Cab owners may be s.o.l. on a brace. But it did get me thinking - perhaps a strut brace would eliminate the need for the "vibration absorber" on the left strut tower since the structural rectangle would be completed by the brace. Does anyone who is getting one of these have both a Cab and either a Coupe/Sedan to try that out? Could be interesting.

- FD

RBYCC

The individual "SickC36" who was fabricating the bars notified us this week that he had an accident, losing part of his thumb and will not be able to supply the bars.

Only one that I know that makes the bar is Weichers in Germany, but not sure if they make for the cab.

The strut brace will stiffen the engine bay / chassis laterally.
The vibration dampener is "tuned" to isolate at a certain frequency.

What is the condition of your struts and strut mounts along with all the rubber bushes in the front suspension?
As I earlier posted I have zero "cowl shake" in my 45K mile 1994 A124...every bit as solid as my 67K mile 1988 C124.

Ed A.

Floobydust

That's too bad about the accident. Loss of a digit, especially a thumb, would be very traumatic.

I am replacing the struts/strut mounts prophylacticaly - in fact I'm trying to confirm the Bilstein HD strut part numbers on another thread. I have checked all the other tie-points (ball joints, bushings, etc) and they are in good shape.

I agree about the vibration dampener being a tuned device, which is why I mentioned that this is not a speed issue. The reason I thought a brace might eliminate it is because the brace will change (lower) the characteristic frequency of the chassis, perhaps to the point where the vibration (resonance) that the damper is supposed to counter does not occur or does not occur at normal driving speeds (the factory resonance seems to be at about 60 - 65 MPH).

Getting back to the torsional rigidity, the way you can really feel what I'm talking about is to put the palm of your hand on the upper corner of the windshield / A pillar and your elbow on the top of the door while driving with the top down. Effectively your arm is forming the side of a triangle. When you go over a bump you can feel the flex in the frame because the side of that "triangle" formed by your arm gets shorter/longer as the body twists.

Anyway, It was thought, but it looks like a brace may be much more trouble than it's worth.

I will post what happens with the strut change. The reason I'm going with the Bilstein HD's is because I think the additional un-sprung weight of the monblocks is hard for the OEM "comfort" struts to control.

Thanks,

- FD

RBYCC

Finally found a W124 strut brace

Sparco makes one and had only one in stock in their California warehouse....

Arrived yesterday !!!

rivcal4life

Nice find Ed! You need it more than most I suppose. What was the price? Were you able to determine their prerequisites to produce more? (ie: minimum number of orders, or if they will make them at all)

Saijin_Naib

Yeah, I'd be interested to know about that as well.
Anyone know if any strut bars will work with the Meyle HD or the RDMTek towers?

190E 16V

Ask RDMTEK. IIRC, they addressed added strut braces to their towers, on another forum, a few years ago.
They could tell you what fits.

RBYCC

Sparco doesn't show the "X Brace" on their website.

Listing starts on page 7 of the below old price list
http://www.sparcousa.com/2003_USA_Price_List.pdf

Give them a call at 1-800-224-7223.
I spoke to "Allen" who confirmed part number as 03694.
They had one in stock.

Ordered it through OG Racing in Sterling VA ( Brian 1-800-934-9112 ) who was recommended by Sparco as their largest East Coast distributor.

Price was $299.00 delivered, polished aluminum, adjustable and weighs about 5LBS.

Will try to fit it soon and see if the outer firewall/bulkhead has to be notched.

I would think if it is catalogued they will make to order if there is no available inventory.

Ed

Floobydust

Nice find. . . I'm jealous! If you try it on your cabriolet at some point (presumably without the vibration absorber in place), please post your experience with it.

- FD

RBYCC

No reason to try in on the cab...
Need it due to the torque output of my M103-12V TT coupe !

E36c_AMG

Do you have to modifie it?Cuz i thing that vibration damper could be the problem!

RBYCC

The coupe doesn't have a vibration dampener...

E36c_AMG

I am talking about the cab....

RBYCC

Won't fit the cab....

YNVDIZW124

I've been looking at a lot of strut braces and the only thing that needs to be made is the mounting brackets. I've found a machine shop that can fabricate the mounting brackets, but the first ones cost about 120-200 depending how many hours it takes to make. The shop charges about 60/hr for prototype work.

Floobydust

Technically, yes. The issue is the vibration absorber. But if this is removed, a the cab becomes the same as a coupe/sedan, so the brace should fit. The hypothesis that I want to test is this: If the vibration absorber is removed AND and strut brace is installed, will the increased torsional rigidity provided by the strut brace negate the need for the vibration absorber?

My theory is that the vibration absorber is a kludge, added to deal with a chassis resonance that popped up as a result of the "chop" operation for converting a coupe to a cabriolet. Anything that changes the fundamental frequencies of the chassis has the potential to eliminate (or to worsen) the resonance that required the "fix" in the first place. I would not be surprised if MB evaluated various bracing options before deciding that the damper was an easier (cheaper?) solution.

BTW, I just got back from Europe where many a W124 wagon is still doing taxi duty.

- FD

WDB124066

Only one way to find out.

Is your Cab suffering from the shakes??

95e300dez

I have made a steel strut bar and rear upper and lower braces like on sparco website. I will post some pics but would be interested in making the same for other people. Looks very similar to the weichers bar but steel and round tube.
[IMG][/IMG]

Saijin_Naib

Interested and PM'd

the_widebody

good first effort, but maybe you will make the next one with a bracket that spreads the load around the tower, not just bolt to the top of the shock? and use ally.