Front Cross Member differences

[greengoblin]

So after picking up a 97 front cross member (thanks Justin) for my 95 car I had a hard time figuring out how the two lower braces for it bolted back up. I asked Brain and Justin to shot me some pics of their's for reference. It became apparent that at some point Mitsu beefed up the plates. I would suspect that this was done with the 97-99 revision. If you have some pics of your's post them up along with the year so we can try to see where the change was made.

Below you will see what I found.


Take a look. The GSX in this picture as bigger plates that mount in more places. It's subtle but I think it does box things in better. Take a closer look

99gsx Brain's Brothers car

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My 97 cross member with the 95 plates I have,
Not the holes for the better brace.

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Brian's 95 GST
Small braces and NO threaded holes to even mount them.

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[97gst_spyder]

Hmm... So they are alittle stiffer in the front then. All you have to do is drill some holes and an some how weld a nutto the other side then.

 

[JonathanNL]

Nice catch! If you will be getting the bigger plates, let us know if it helped any for the rigidity!

 

[turbosax2]

Notice the difference between the FWD and AWD revisions:

AWD
1994.01.1 - 1996.06.3: MB892254 (superseded by MR316248)
1996.07.1 - 1997.06.3: MR316248
1997.07.1 - 1999.04.3: MR316713

FWD
1994.01.1 - 1996.06.3: MB892254 (superseded by MR316248)
1996.07.1 - 1999.04.3: MR316248



And just for the heck of it, here's the part numbers for the crossmember stays (AWD and FWD are same):

Left hand:
1994.01.1 - 1996.06.3: MB864629
1996.07.1 - 1999.04.3: MR316246

Right hand:
1994.01.1 - 1996.06.3: MB864630
1996.07.1 - 1999.04.3: MR316247

 

[greengoblin]

Hmm... So they are alittle stiffer in the front then. All you have to do is drill some holes and an some how weld a nutto the other side then.

That would prove hard to do as the nut would need to between the sheets of metal. Doable yes. Easy I don't think so.

Nice catch! If you will be getting the bigger plates, let us know if it helped any for the rigidity!

I'll be using the bigger plates as I now have a 97 crossmember. I really won;t be able to describe if it makes a differance as I'm doing a TON of suspension mods all at once.


turbosax2

Thanks a ton for posting that up. Great info.

Kevin

 

[snowborder714]

Bringing this back as I'm looking for a spare crossmember to send away to get modded.

If you had to recommend one Kevin (early or late), which would it be?

Also, based on this recommendation, should I also consider some additional bracing (i.e. JDM 4 point underbrace)?

Just trying to figure out if going to a crossmember that uses the bigger braces would be ideal to get as much support as I can, or that might be negated if I were to add additional bracing.


All of this assuming that these are all interchangeable, which it looks like they are.

 

[99gst_racer]

Very intersting. This is the first time I've seen these differences.

Kevin, how does the bracing fit up with the raised pick-up points?

 

[TSiAWD666]

I wonder if at some point I should just send you your 95 crossmember back and you send me that later year one

In case anyone's wondering what Kevin and I figured out was that Robispec took Kevin's crossmember, modified it, and instead of sending it back to Kevin he sold it to me. He then made Kevin wait many many months and eventually sold him a later year crossmember. Robert took the one from my 99 so it's possible Kevin actually has the one from my car, but we're not entirely sure on that part. We are sure 100% that I have his crossmember though.

 

[greengoblin]

I wonder if at some point I should just send you your 95 crossmember back and you send me that later year one

In case anyone's wondering what Kevin and I figured out was that Robispec took Kevin's crossmember, modified it, and instead of sending it back to Kevin he sold it to me. He then made Kevin wait many many months and eventually sold him a later year crossmember. Robert took the one from my 99 so it's possible Kevin actually has the one from my car, but we're not entirely sure on that part. We are sure 100% that I have his crossmember though.

Yeah, I sure was screwed on that deal. You had your fast and it was sandblasted clean for you. I really don't think you lost much rigidity with he older unit. I pretty sure he screwed up your and the unit I have is the second one I shipped him off a 98. Damn that guy.He does good work but on his own time it seems.

Very intersting. This is the first time I've seen these differences.

Kevin, how does the bracing fit up with the raised pick-up points?

I have not ordered the correct braces yet. I'm not sure it I'm going to run the OEM unit. build my own or both. There also the chance I might never run the unit at all. I know this guy who is suppose to be building tube units.

Bringing this back as I'm looking for a spare crossmember to send away to get modded.

If you had to recommend one Kevin (early or late), which would it be?

Also, based on this recommendation, should I also consider some additional bracing (i.e. JDM 4 point underbrace)?

Just trying to figure out if going to a crossmember that uses the bigger braces would be ideal to get as much support as I can, or that might be negated if I were to add additional bracing.


All of this assuming that these are all interchangeable, which it looks like they are.

The new model with the added bracing is better. How much better is really hard to say. If you where to add a jdm four point brace it would matter less since that unit ties those areas together. The questions is would the JDM unit work on the Robi xmember? It's not to likely. However I'd be willing to build a few for us who have the Robi unit if there was interest. I think it could be beneficial .

 

[snowborder714]

The questions is would the JDM unit work on the Robi xmember? It's not to likely. However I'd be willing to build a few for us who have the Robi unit if there was interest. I think it could be beneficial .

I was just using that as a reference, as I'm sure it wouldn't work. But I'm probably more positive about not being able to find one. I'd probably work with you to just build a one-off (or couple-off) piece.

 

[greengoblin]

It would be nice get one of the JDM braces to build a jig off. Then they could be made for lots of people. pretty easy.

 

[snowborder714]

I bet it'd be pretty easy if you could get one in your hands. I could try convincing the guy who has the one red one I know of to loan to you (maybe over the winter if their car goes in hibernation).

I wish I could find more than one floating around as that really makes it difficult.

 

[greengoblin]

I bet it'd be pretty easy if you could get one in your hands. I could try convincing the guy who has the one red one I know of to loan to you (maybe over the winter if their car goes in hibernation).

I wish I could find more than one floating around as that really makes it difficult.

That would be awesome. Maybe I should send Andrew B a message. He might be able to track one down since he lives in JDM land.

 

[snowborder714]

Worth a shot!