Title asks it. I'm helping [HTi]Savage make a 4 inch lift for his Gen 1 Brat with Gen 2 drive gear.

 

It's .120 steel tube, I think it should hold. I've seen less material take more abuse. I'm pretty confident as a 4 year iron worker, that it should take a beating.

 

ild feel better if it had some more trailing bracing. There is now more torque forces on the mounts, so they may bend if there tires or anything try to go over something.

 

I hope that was clear.

 

nipper

I kinda follow. You think there should be something from the mounting point and either mounted towards the back or front of the vehicle?

YES!

 

or a more substantial mount. Otherwise i like it

 

 

nipper

The body mount, right?

I would span a brace from one side of the central bar to the front, and from the other side, to the back, if you REALLY want it rock-solid... but the center is probably the best spot to reinforce, not the outsides of it.

 

Just keep in mind the direction it will want to "twist" in and give it one more stop against that direction of travel, and you should be golden. Not that I am knowledgeable enough to say "its gonna break like that," but when you backyard re-engineer something like this, its always nice to do it 300% unless weight starts getting in your way.. and wahts two more, one foot lengths of tube going to hurt? Otherwise, that looks great.

Weld some braces off of that Trailer hitch and it should be better for the diff and for the hitch.

right. that piece looks good but you need to brace it so that it puts less stress on the stock un-reinforced parts. nice work!

I'd make a brace to go from halfway down the bars that go from the body mounts to the diff, to the lift blocks that the trailing arms attach to. The only thing though is to make both ends of the bars have bushings in them to help relieve stress on the welds. Just a though and it would help with lateral and longitudenal applications.

The dude that runs SubaruBrat has a great writeup on custom rear hanger.

 

write-up

 

Use it, break it, fix it, upgrade it...

That's what I like doing

I agree with the Aussy!

But, we will add two pieces that go from the piece behind the diff up to the body, where the old torsion bar mounted. That'll add a lot of strength, plus, a friend told us that any impact that causes the diff to push the driveline into the tranny with break some of the 4wd components in the tranny.

Johnson']I agree with the Aussy!

But' date=' we will add two pieces that go from the piece behind the diff up to the body, where the old torsion bar mounted. That'll add a lot of strength, plus, a friend told us that any impact that causes the diff to push the driveline into the tranny with break some of the 4wd components in the tranny.[/quote']

 

 

In that case, you might want to brace it against forward motion with a brace spanning from the moustache bar towards the front of the car, too. One in either direction is alot more rigid than two facing the back.

 

It's gotta be kinda hard to think about adding something to that piece you've already made, because it looks so nice and neat.. but function comes before form, I guess.

I'd just run two bars from the center above the diff, one to each of the blocks at the old torsion bar mounts to strengthen the whole assembly. The mount points are pretty weak, and they tend to bend on stock abused vehicles. I can only imagine the stresses on the mounts with that system.

I would also replace the bushings with solid rubber or neoprene.

I'd rather overbuild the crap out of it and not worry about it-

How about this!:

and this

Yeah, that looks about right.

Gorgeous!

much better, but i would have prevered them in the oppsit direction, the direction that force would be applied, but it should work.

 

 

nipper

I thought about that, but this way, it's going to be nearly impossible for the driveshaft to be shoved into the transmission. I've heard that breaks some 4wd components.

 

But it's easily modified if need be.

Johnson']I thought about that' date=' but this way, it's going to be nearly impossible for the driveshaft to be shoved into the transmission. I've heard that breaks some 4wd components.

 

But it's easily modified if need be.[/quote']

 

Do you think the lack of a little bit of flex will hurt? Factory mounts are rubber mounts? I kinda think it's better but does it maybe need the flex?

It mounts on the original bushings. See the ends?

Do you think the lack of a little bit of flex will hurt? Factory mounts are rubber mounts? I kinda think it's better but does it maybe need the flex?

 

as far as I know, the purpose of rubber mounts at any point in the driveline, from motor mounts to strut mounts, is simply to reduce body flex and vibration transfer from the drivetrain into the chassis.