Yes they would prevent damage to the u joint. Something happened to my rear end that caused something to break and put a hole in the floor under my gas tank. This might have been caused during the same incident that broke the A arm and steering knuckle support in the front suspension as well. As you can see my car was driven very hard at one time, but it's getting the tlc it needs after it's 12 years of storage right now. There is a gap between the axle and the strap during normal driving conditions. I have a picture of it in my complete corvette resotration and technical guide that would show how loose the strap is under normal driving conditions. As for how large the gap should be? The answer is I don't know. My dad purchased the straps for my car from a company back in the early 90's and it wasn't installed on the car until 2004. The body hasn't been on the frame since 2000 so I can't go in the garage and measure the distance. The straps I had came with holes predrilled in them and have to be riveted in place. The different years of Corvettes used different length rebound straps 53-58 used a 27.24", 59 used a 28.36", but 1960 is where it gets tricky. In 1960 the cars came with a 29.90" strap until they were changed late in the model year to 29.50". 1961-1962 Corvettes all used the same length strap of 29.50". If you look at a parts manual to buy the straps you will see the different lengths. Oh and btw I didn't use the rivets in mine, but instead used a 1/4 inch ss bolt, nut, and washer to attach them and put the plates from the rivets that came with them behind the bolts (Don't quote me on the size of that bolt it's been a couple years and a lot of nuts and bolts since I put them on). I don't have a car that is completely factory original and didn't want to have them riveted in place so I couldn't replace them easily if the straps broke or wore out.
