Tension stuts

[harris horse power]

Does anyone no how tension struts work and what the pros and cons are over compression struts.

 

Thanks Simon

[cozmic]

I take it your referring to tension strut/ anti roll bar versus compression strut. The compression strut is a much heavier duty unit and keeps the wheel in its correct position fore and aft, it does however mean you have to lose the anti roll bar so people tend to run higher poundage springing to cancel out some body roll, this setup does tend to be a pretty hardcore setup and does transmit a far amount of vibration and noise.

A tension strut/ anti roll bar setup is a more road orientated setup as it means you can run softer spring rates without losing handling, the trade off is the road wheel can move fore and aft more as there are more bushings involved which all flex when the car is driven, however they do give a more isolated ride as the bushings absorb most of the vibration

Basically then if most of your driving is on the road (even spirited) your best bet is probabaly a heavier duty version of the tension bar/anti roll bar setup with poly bushes.

Hope that helps

[nik_plant]

Got any pics of some fitted ?

[BIG G]

i use tension struts to be honest best thing i did as it now turns in like a modern car. It uses the arb mounts and the bar runs from them to the tca. no welding and looks the bollox, my photobucket account has deleted the pics i had

[oldschoolrules]

you can run a roll bar with either set up, if you use compression struts (that come from the chassic forwards to the track control arms) you can use the original roll bar fitted with drop links that connect it to the track control arms.

 

with tension struts you fit a different roll bar that fits to the tension strut mounting bracket and attached again with drop links.

 

compression strut needs brackets welding to the body, tension struts are, as said above, pretty much bolt on.

[harris horse power]

I take it your referring to tension strut/ anti roll bar versus compression strut. The compression strut is a much heavier duty unit and keeps the wheel in its correct position fore and aft, it does however mean you have to lose the anti roll bar so people tend to run higher poundage springing to cancel out some body roll, this setup does tend to be a pretty hardcore setup and does transmit a far amount of vibration and noise.

A tension strut/ anti roll bar setup is a more road orientated setup as it means you can run softer spring rates without losing handling, the trade off is the road wheel can move fore and aft more as there are more bushings involved which all flex when the car is driven, however they do give a more isolated ride as the bushings absorb most of the vibration

Basically then if most of your driving is on the road (even spirited) your best bet is probabaly a heavier duty version of the tension bar/anti roll bar setup with poly bushes.

Hope that helps

 

Thanks for that to be honest I'm going to use the car for alot of track days next year but I like the tension strut idea as it doesn't involve any welding like the compression struts do. Will it be any good for some hard track abuse

[over_head_cam]

One advantage I've noticed with the tension struts is that you don't have to swap the TCA's from left to right and vice versa, this means that your bottom ball-joint still lines up with the castor angle so it retains it's full range of motion. I have no idea if this would affect the geometry or handling though.

[cozmic]

Tension struts will take a fair bit of abuse especially if you can uprate any of the bushes/ struts etc , ie on a mk1 or 2 escort a good all round setup is twincam antiroll bar, double width kit , poly bushes or race spec solid bushes, and an anti dive kit. Lots of people track their cars using this kind of setup and get good results, I only ever ran tension struts on my club level rally cars and found the setup more than satisfactory. I don,t know what is available for a fiesta but I would imagine there,s plenty to choose from a poke around the web should give you plenty of options race preperation garages will normally give good free advice

[harris horse power]

Tension struts will take a fair bit of abuse especially if you can uprate any of the bushes/ struts etc , ie on a mk1 or 2 escort a good all round setup is twincam antiroll bar, double width kit , poly bushes or race spec solid bushes, and an anti dive kit. Lots of people track their cars using this kind of setup and get good results, I only ever ran tension struts on my club level rally cars and found the setup more than satisfactory. I don,t know what is available for a fiesta but I would imagine there,s plenty to choose from a poke around the web should give you plenty of options race preperation garages will normally give good free advice

 

Sorry i should have said early , this is all for my mk1 escort not the fiesta. So shall I go for the twin cam anti roll bar ,double width kit and anti dive. Rather then the tension struts?

[cozmic]

Aah ok thats made things a bit different the twincam/ double width thing is a classic rally setup used by ford on their twincam rally cars before the group 4 cars came along.

It is a good baseline setup it may however be a little "soft" for serious track days depending on your suspension strut/spring settings, pesonally I would be looking at using coilovers with maybe 170lb springs with 300/70 short bilstein inserts and then the twincam arb, anti dive kit, poly bushed through out ,adjustable tca's are a good idea as they will enable you to get a bit more camber angle. Ok I realise that little lot ain't cheap but it is a good proven tarmac system which works well, obviously this is only my opinion it never hurts to get as much info as possible ,the nearest to trackdays I got was tarmac rallying so other peoples suggestions may be better than mine.

Iam somewhat envious I must admit I haven,t built a competition car in years but I do miss it.......................................not enough to sell my zodiac though