rear end brace?

[hkalin]

I put a new set of those on my 71 Malibu now that it has a 396 in it. I read where they were put in the cars to help stiffen up the rear crossmember because the cars with bigger horsepower motors in them were breaking the welds on that crossmember.

[Hank70SS]

Originally Posted by hkalin

I put a new set of those on my 71 Malibu now that it has a 396 in it. I read where they were put in the cars to help stiffen up the rear crossmember because the cars with bigger horsepower motors in them were breaking the welds on that crossmember.

That's my understanding of why they were added. The upper arms pull on the cross member during acceleration causing it to flex and possibly break welds. Putting them on won't chance the pinion angle put will help it from changing during acceleration. Adjustable upper arms or changing rear ride height are the way to change pinion angle.