Thunderbird Cross brace for LS

IrishV8LS

IrishV8LS

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I was wondering if anyone has heard of using the cross brace from a Thunderbird for added strength.
 
If you are talking about shock tower brace, the Lincoln LS has a brace that runs just under cowl at the top of the fire wall.
 
no there is a large x shaped brace to further strengthen the subframe of the unibody on the convertible.
 
It will be too short, the wheelbase for the Tbird is shorter.
 
ford calls the part a rear cross bar, the underside of the ls appears to have all the mounting holes for this part.
 
Try it out, see if it works. I'd be interested if it does indeed work. If it doesn't just return the part. How much does Ford want for it?
 
I have a customer who has a '02 T-Bird and thats how I noticed this part when I was checking out a noise in the suspension. I am going to ask her to bring it back in and ill make some measurements and compare the mounting holes.
 
King03LS8 said:
Try it out, see if it works. I'd be interested if it does indeed work. If it doesn't just return the part. How much does Ford want for it?
Click to expand...

I ordered the part today. It was only $135 at cost and $150 retail. As that I run a shop i get my FoMoCo stuff for cost. It should be at my shop my monday or tuesday, ill let everyone know how it goes when i get it in.


I was also wondering if anyone knows if larger sway bars are available anywhere.
 
there are no aftermarket anti-sway bars available.

the anti-sway bars are usually adjusted to increase/decrease oversteer/understeer - which issue are you solving for?
 
i was looking to loosen up the front a bit, and i have alot of roll in the rear i would like to correct

quick i was wondering what kinda suspension set up you are running?
 
Here's what I did:
- lowered - nearly 3" (now after a few years) with intrak springs
- added howe spring rubbers to 'dial in' the amount of oversteer I like.

the car is pretty balanced and nearly prefect in cross-weight - but like all mass market cars has some understeer built into it for safety. I tend to like a like more oversteer. The LS is fairly predictable on the edge - nicely drifts wide, squeeling the whole way - so more or less throttle can really control it.

I also did up the brakes - which helped a lot.

My Lotus is a little different, more oversteer, and a little darty on the edge. Lighter - so you can go deeper, but less warnign when it lets go.
 
i was gonna buy the euro shock from ls lskoncepts. are they worth my $?
 
Think there would be any NVH benifit from running one of them? I know on some full frame cars they added extra crossmembers in the back to dampen noise and vibration.
 
in the back? hmmm I was just looking at the front. There is room to brace the control arms a bit
 
the t-bird lost a lot of torsional stiffness when they chopped the roof off the DEW98 platform. All the extra bracing to stiffen it added weight and hurt it's performance...
The question is will the bracing actually help the LS....
 
generally speaking, stiffer body = better handling... but it might not stiffen a damn thing, and they are called general rules for a reason. I say fvck it, do it up and see what happens.
 
Here is the exploded view from ford showing the cross member(part #7). it is similar to how the M3 uses the same brace as the 3 series convertible to attain chassis stiffness. Ill take pics on Tuesday when the part shows up.

brace.gif
 
Here is a pic of the sway bar links i made. i didn't like the factory parts so i decided to make my own.

Photo_111108_001.jpg
 
dude, wether it works or not and no matter how many of these guys give you sh!t, you are going out of the box and doing something different. Chase it down, and see what you get.
 
SPSully said:
dude, wether it works or not and no matter how many of these guys give you sh!t, you are going out of the box and doing something different. Chase it down, and see what you get.
Click to expand...

Thanks man, I am new to working on my LS, i just know from my experence stiffer equals better handling. who knows it may not work but if it does i dont think it won't be long before we see them on some other LS's.
 
you definitely could be onto something. Make sure to take LOTS of pics and include a write up on the how to
 
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