i have finished my pan hard bar project on my car. it was an interesting process. i started wanting to do a watts link thinking that its necessary for leaf springs to not create a bind. i was doing lots on internet searching on design of them. i came across 2 different references to using a pan hard bar with leaf springs. both are highly reputable builders, Mike Maier and Ron Sutton. At that point i decided to do a pan hard bar. my first plan was to use 2 slider boxes so it would be roll center adjustable. i had a friend mill out some rectangle tube to make the slider boxes. i then started seeing how to fit them in the car. it quickly became obvious that the one that would come off the frame would not fit with the tail pipe. so i started looking around at other solutions and found on Ron Suttons site, a tube slider set up that takes way less space and is much lighter than the the slider box. so i made an axle clamp assembly for one slider box to put on the the differential and got the slider tube mount from Ron Sutton for the frame side. when i do another pan hard bar ill just do 2 tube sliders. its much simpler and cheaper than using slider boxes. i took pics so here they are. view from the bottom. you can see the slider tube coming down from the frame with the gold slider clamp . also note the tube reinforcement brace. i ran it to the fuel tank support. you can also see how the slider box clamps onto the differential. Here you can see the slider box clamped to the differential. another angle of the slider box. here you can see the tube slider. i ended up with a limited amount of height adjustment. going down it will hit the leafspring and going up it will hit the exhaust. i would say i have about 2 to 3 inches of adjustment for roll center. heres a pick of the slider bar bracket and rod end. Ron Sutton sells these at a really good price. heres a different view of the axle clamp slider box assembly. and another, note the first attempt at a light weight pvc pan hard bar! heres my good buddy Mike welding the the tube slider to the frame. check out our cool stands. the car goes up on the hoist then we have 4 wheel stands that are about 5' high we set the car down on so the suspension is compressed at ride height. also you get a good look at the brand new falcon tires on the car. here is the slider tube. if you look above the exhaust pipe you can see where we welded the tube to a plate that we shaped and welded to the floor and frame rail. another view of the slider tube that you can see the frame welding. this next Saturday is the next autocross im going to. i am expecting the car to handle much better with the new tires and pan hard bar. then im going to knotts show. so if you're at the show you can stick your head under the car and check the pan hard bar out in person.
Very intense! Quite a bit out of my league on the design and application, but I can appreciate the amount of work! I hope it performs to your standards. Nice job!
Ron is one smart cookie, I read a very long thread on Pro Touring where he helped a guy work through some issues with a Monte SS. Once I made it past the mind blown stage I learned a lot!
Very nice chunk of hardware there Bryant!!! Is that slider bar DOM moly tubing or just plain old steel tube?? I have been considering a similar set up for my project mav...Very cool and thanks for the info.
plain old 120 wall tubing. the all knowing mr sutton said that 120 mild steel is over kill. i dont remember exactly what he said the minimum is but that 120 will be more than strong enough.
Nice! I've been talking to Ron about getting his Watts link setup. Im curious, what is you body mount mounted to. I dont see where it is mounted to the existing cross member or the frame rail. Just the trunk floor. Even though you have a cross brace, I'd gusset that tube to the frame rail. Youll be putting a lot of pressure on the trunk sheet metal the way it is.
i put a plate that is bent in 2 places. it starts along the trunk floor where 2 layers overlap, then bends down the side of the frame rail and bends around the bottom of the frame rail. its fully welded. the tube has a notch cut out that allows it to go from the floor and wrap around the bottom of the frame rail. with the pan hard bar being near the bottom of the tube, more load is going to be put through the lower brace. that is where im more worried about where it may need further bracing. the space back their is so limited with tail pipes and a big 9" housing. ill find out this saturday how well it work.
I see it now that I know what to look for. Before it looked as if you had flush mounted a piece of DOM to a 4x4 plate to the under side of the trunk floor. eeek! Anyway.... on to your diagonal brace... I bet it will be just fine. My panhard from TCI has no bracing. I believe it does flex which is how I came to the Watts link decision but it hasnt broken yet. As soon as someone pays me the money they owe for my old stroker kit, I'll start ordering and fabricating. Anyway. Cant wait to see your report on its performance this weekend.
Ditto. Can't wait for his report. I've wanted to do same on my car as well. Just don't have the equipment to fab one up.
it was a busy day. check this thread out. http://mmb.maverick.to/threads/i-autocrossed-today-and-some-other-stuff-vid-inside.103745/ the panhard bar is great.
