Gearbox - ripping the top off

[JCJC]

First time out yesterday with a secondhand D4, managed to catch something, must have pushed the front shock tower back, ripped the top of the gearbox off, new parts £11ish

Wondering how common this is going to be and if there are any quick and simple solutions to make this a bit stronger. Not a difficult part to change - but an £11ish shock tower would have been easier. Any thoughts ?

What other parts are good to keep in the kitbox.

[mark christopher]

front shock tower, gear box tops are prone to break under upside down impacts, after all its not designed to land that way up.

cary front and rear wishbones too and your bout sorted

[JCJC]

Cheers Mark, but no mods out there ?

I was liking our old ZX-5 system, shock tower mounted on a four legged stand, mounted onto the gearbox, 2years+ with the ZX-5 and original gearbox unbroken. Did do a few towers ........ I need to get my driver to keep it the right way up

[Adam Skelding]

Mods:
1. Turn you shock-screws round, so the button head faces forward. this stops the screw itself digging into the floor and tearing your tower back. With the button facing forward, you have a 'smoother impact face' which doesn;t tend to dig in as much.

Doubling up on towers is a bad idea: Normally means the tower won't break, but the gearbox top certainly will.

There's no real mods here apart from the top one. Make sure you glue the edges of the tower though, it will stop the tower de-laminating.

[Scouser]

The only problem I had with the front end of my D4 was the shock towers de-laminating from the countersunk holes. Since the towers now come non-countersunk, the problem was solved. The shock tower mounts did look to be vulnerable at first but i put my car through a ton of crashes and it never skipped a beat. Could just be that you were unlucky on that crash, odds are you wont break another one for years.

[JCJC]

Sounds good, thanks Adam & Scouser, I like the sound of turning the shock retaining screw, will slow changing position - but easy to get at, the outer holes on the front tower, are these used alot?

Driver really pleased with the car btw.