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240 rear chassis brace?

Finnish240

Finnish240

Member
Joined
May 6, 2011
Location
Finland
So, I have made strutbrace and ''upper and lower GT-braces'' for my '90 240. I've been wondering for a while has anyone made any kind of brace to rear section of 240 sedan or wagon frame? I know that welding panels helps to stiff frame, but I'm not going to do it right now.

I had towing hook in my car, (and it's gone, and not coming back) after I took it off cars rear felt like floppy or ''loose''

Any thoughts? :)
 
I think you're describing the effects of having a towing hitch frame that used to stiffen the car. The easiest and likely cheapest way to stiffen again would be to install another one. You don't have to have the towing ball insert. If you just use the Volvo OEM towing hitch and leave the insert out, it won't stick out past your rear bumper.

Or you could try to put a very stiff brace inside your trunk that bolted to the already existing threaded holes that the towing hitch bolts used. That would make your car's trunk less usable, but would likely achieve similar stiffness.
 
bwright002 said:
I think you're describing the effects of having a towing hitch frame that used to stiffen the car. The easiest and likely cheapest way to stiffen again would be to install another one. You don't have to have the towing ball insert. If you just use the Volvo OEM towing hitch and leave the insert out, it won't stick out past your rear bumper.

Or you could try to put a very stiff brace inside your trunk that bolted to the already existing threaded holes that the towing hitch bolts used. That would make your car's trunk less usable, but would likely achieve similar stiffness.
Click to expand...

I removed butt cheeks and same time that black plastic came off, so it could look a bit silly with a hitch.

Today I kicked my own ass and started working. 30mm pipe and punch of holes and it's allmost done. I think that it works better under car than inside, but at the moment it's at the trunk. i bolted that with B230Ft's head bolts :) It looks bit rough at the moment, but I'll paint and sand it later.

11147078_10206340797748895_6641398657653225161_n.jpg

11164786_10206340794668818_4173000314111111745_n.jpg


20mm holesaw gawe all what it had:
11059934_10206340808669168_4545018443763125929_o.jpg
 
That was kind of what I was suggesting. Any reason you have those many holes in the connecting brace? Won't they weaken the brace substantially?
 
Really?
Please explain how a tube that has less surface area can be stronger?
I could understand if the tube were crimped how it might improve strength.
Not trying to be a smart ass. I'm really interested.
 
That brace you made wont do anything to stiffen the car. It might be a good place to attach bungee cords though.

A tow hitch definitely reinforces the chassis a good bit
 
I too was thinking there needs to be some triangulation or boxing in to control the torsion flexing.
 
Adding a hole to a tube reduces the twisting/bending stiffness by ~10x unless the hole is really small. Tubes are amazing until you start drilling holes in them.
The holes and dimple dies are used to reduce weight and add stiffness to the flat sheet metal panel. It doesn't work in a tube.
The plates above in the cage are used when the gap from the cage to the body is too big to weld and/or if they want to look cool. That's it.
 
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Pretty much got rid of all of the torsional strength of that tube.
The up side is that you now have this bar in the trunk for securing cargo or for rice points.
 
I got some feedback from Finnish forums also, and noticed it by myself also that it doesn't work. Maybe next I'm going to cut towing beam in to peaces and make a new a lot bigger tube, weld it and bolt under car. It's nice to see that when you **** up people starts to tell how to do things. :D same thin all over to world :)
 
We're not trying to be negative in our comments. You originally posted that you noticed that your rear end was not as stiff once you removed the towing hitch. I completely understand that. For some reason you don't want to reinstall the original hitch. Ok, I guess you have your reasons.

While there may be some other method to reproduce the stiffening that the original hitch produced, it's not going to be bolt-in simple, and very likely not as effective.

If you really never want to tow anything (or be pulled out of a snowbank), you could simply cut the hitch tongue where it protrudes.
 
bwright002 said:
We're not trying to be negative in our comments. You originally posted that you noticed that your rear end was not as stiff once you removed the towing hitch. I completely understand that. For some reason you don't want to reinstall the original hitch. Ok, I guess you have your reasons.

While there may be some other method to reproduce the stiffening that the original hitch produced, it's not going to be bolt-in simple, and very likely not as effective.

If you really never want to tow anything (or be pulled out of a snowbank), you could simply cut the hitch tongue where it protrudes.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry, I was pissed off because I was so stupid:oops::oops:

I'm not going to weld the body seams because my welder isn't greatest for sheet metal (body) work, and I'm using car atm. Cages would be excellent, but I think that my 4 doors loses its usability. So now next what I'm going to do is cut ends off from my old towing hook hitch and weld a new same size or slightly smaller in diameter but straight tube between ends. Hook is bolted with 3bolts per side, so I think its giving some extra rigidity for rear frame.
 
<a href='http://i.imgur.com/qsxK51s' title=''><img src='http://i.imgur.com/qsxK51s.jpg' alt='' title='Hosted by imgur.com' /></a>

<a href='http://i.imgur.com/GH8pnuO' title=''><img src='http://i.imgur.com/GH8pnuO.jpg' alt='' title='Hosted by imgur.com' /></a>


<a href='http://i.imgur.com/Tfz5OQF' title=''><img src='http://i.imgur.com/Tfz5OQF.jpg' alt='' title='Hosted by imgur.com' /></a>

Made this brace a while back. Took the wiggle out of the tail. Working on another brace right now
 
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