yeah, same question here.... are washers the best or a flat sheet of rubber that is cut to fit? also would rubber, polyu., or some other type of material be best suited for dampening these vibrations? im not expecting that there would be much movement so a softer material would do more good... except rubber will degrade.

also, can someone please post the website for the autoexe braces... ive looked/searched

thanks, heath

 

They will interfere with the diff brace.Yes

 

Any good hardware store will have good rubber tiles or sheets that's where I got my stuff from, and it can come in various thicknesses also.


-Sean

 

I'll forgive you for doubting my word since you're relatively new around here, but don't let it happen again.

 

www.corksport.com sells the autoExe brace, but the site is down...

 

Just FYI, I bought mine from Cork Sport. A deposit is required since it's a special order, and it took 5 months for them to receive the brace kit from Auto EXE in Japan.

 

I actually went to corksport right before christmas and they had one there in stock.

 

Can someone circle where the differential brace mounts and where the tranny brace mounts.

Thanks,
Victor

 

The transmission brace would be hidden beneath the aluminum belly pan behind the engine cradle, above the front X-shaped Auto EXE brace in first the picture below.

The differential brace bolts to the foremost set of bolt holes, immediately to the right of the white band in the first picture. You can see that the stock rear crossbrace (which passes through the PPF) is still in place. The second picture below shows the differential brace mounting points in relation to the rear brace.

 

come on...think outside of hte box people.... in theory couldnt you have both??? if you just made the diff brace have a slight crook in it (have one made to sit *on top* of the auto exe brace) then you could have your cake and eat it too!! anyone up to the challenge???? jimlab?? anyone?? make a diff brace that sits on top of the autoexe brace and ill definatly buy one!!! and i bet a bunch of other people will as well!!

 

you could( or have someone) custom make something that could have both. Jim made his own set(no?).

 

would putting washers as a spacer be OK?

 

i can mill the diff brace down to allow the rest of the braces to fit ontop of the diff brace. having it mount the other way around looks much more involved due to the thickness of the autoexe past the mounting points.

 

Already working on something like it, but won't be for awhile.

-Sean

 

The basic problem, boys and girls, is that the mounting point used by the differential brace is angled forward and is one of the lowest points on the underside of the car, which is obvious in the picture below. The stock crossbrace which installed there is often scraped up on most cars I've seen, and it's almost like it was designed to catch on things.

Making the pieces which mount to that point thicker by combining a combination of braces isn't a good idea, in my opinion. If you do happen to really catch it on something, you're going to buckle the floor pan like you wouldn't believe.

 

good point jimlab.... that would definatly be bad!! the other option i see is making a copy of the autoexe unit where the T for bracing the tranny is *incorporated* into the design..... basically a 1 piece unit!! if this could be made and sold as a complete bracing package w/ the X piece, and the transmission brace included (and if the price was set slightly lower, or equal to the autoexe unit..... then you would have your self a GREAT SELLING PRODUCT!) P.S. if anyone makes this do it in red! Zero R are you up to the challenge? hehe

 

I'm with RotorMotor!!!!

Jim,...I am sorry for doubting you! I was late to take away your auto exe braces when you were selling them. I'm local, so I could have asked you to put them on instead of shipping.

POM HB

 

or!

you can get a new PPF (RE Amemiya, Mazdaspeed) and not worry about the differential brace? and just get the AutoEXE braces.

 

OK, let's sum it up to clarify the gobbly gook.

Which ones are the ones that people should buy.

Benefits and prices?

 

i love all this brace stuff!! cant wait to make one!

 

just a though.... there is apoint when too much rigidity is bad, ... there is a reason why motor mounts give, ..so that somthing else dosnt give..somthing more critical..

also, there are two things here, braces for chassy rigidity and braces to minimize the drivetrain movement, ...and it seems to me you want to keep those seperate to a gedree, ... the drivetrain basically 'floats' in the tunnel of the car, and minimizing its movement is nice, but having some (justa little) give is proabbly benefitial to both the chassy and drivetrain...im just speculating and babbling...

with that said, im all for any kinds of brace :-) becasue I HATE the driveline slop these cars have, and these braces take soem of it away...

by the way, i was gonna get a etb, but made urethane moutns instead and i have almost no vibration and a VERY solid engine/tranny... no etb needed now and the torque force is being applied where it was designed to be...

 

upgraded PPF's don't stop the diff casing from breaking. That's one of the main reasons to get a diff brace.

 

ok, after trying to orient my self w/ the under car pics above... it seems like if you take the autoexe rear brace and just weld on 1 straight piece, you will have your diff brace as well. am i right or am i looking at this thing wrong? also, id use a generous amount of rubber anywhere you bolt to the drivetrain... but none on the chassis bolts.

 

how about this? also, can someone show me where the tranny brace mounting points are... i seem to ne a little disoriented (not used to looking at hte car from this angle i guess ) heath

.

 

You can't see the transmission brace mounting points in those pictures, because they're under the aluminum belly pan in the first picture, as I said before...