Articblast

Hey guys, I can get a hell of a deal on a non-adjustable Panhard bar! If I want to lower my car I understand I will need the lowering springs, lower control arms and relocation brackets, but does the panhard bar have to be adjustable or can a regular one work as well?

LPEdave

When you lower the car, the rear axle will move left about 1/4-3/8". If that causes a tire to rub, then an adjustable PHR will solve it. Or if that bothers you visually, then the adjustable PHR will sove it. Otherwise, you can use a stock or non-adjustable one.

Dave

94formulabz

Dave is right, the adjustable PHR is more for the visually picky. If you lower the car and center it using the PHR you may find that you actually need to comprimise and move it back towards the stock length to keep it off the passenger side fender (depending on tire combo). It would be a lot easier to explain with a picture but here goes....

Worst case scenario for side to side rear end shift is at full compression when the rear housing tubes are on the bumpstops, and the entire rear end will have actaully shifted to the passenger side at that point. Your bumpstops are at the same place stock or lowered. When your lowered you're just spending the majority of your time in a different more limited range of the stock travel.

Stock the PHR starts slopes down slightly towards the drivers side. As suspension compresses it initially shifts the rear end to the left(driver's side). As the susp continues to compress the rear end moves in an arc around the body mounting point as its pivot, which is on the psg side. This means as you approach max travel the axle is actually moveing to the right.

On a lowered car the PHR starts with a slight upward slope to the drivers side and as it compresses it only follows the arc to the right. So if you make your PHR too short you will rub your drivers side inner tire or psg side outer on the fender.

Thats why some suspensions with longer travels are designed based on a satchel link, or use a watts linkage in place of the PHR either of which allow true vertical motion of the axle. Its also easy to explain in theta's and cosines, but most people don't like them too much....

-Brent

94formulabz

P.S. Your control arms don't give a hoot if your car is lowered or not, and sorry if i gave anyone a headache with the small book above.

Severous01

my adjustable is nowhere near parallel with the ground. at full compression of the suspension it MIGHT be parallel. and the LCAs do care what angle they are at. they should be parallel with the ground at launch...at full compression, they like to be parallel with the ground, along with the sway bar, but it likes to be parallel with the ground at ride height. so if you lower your car, you may need new endlinks...i had to cut mine about 1/8 of an inch...actually i filed them down with a grinder. any way, you'll only need an adjustable if you lower your car, and it doesnt have to be adjustable either, slp has a phr for lowered cars tha have eibach's pro kit and bilsteins.

Articblast

Thanks guys, I'll go with the adjustable!

"White Knight"

yea get the adjustable one.

Off topic, but how do you adjust the control arms to the proper length...or should i say the easiest way..should i take them off and measure them or just launch and see which way it goes and correct it.

94formulabz

Well, mines actually sloping up at ride height and will only slope up more under full compression, i have to let it droop to get parrelel. But then again thats with the moser in. I thought the moser was pretty damn close to the stock location of the PHR mounting location.

I ran the eibach prokit for 2 years, stock PHR, stock 10 bolt, with both the stock wheels and 17x9.5 with 275 bfgoodrich and nittos.

With the slightly wider bfgoodriches i could not center the rear at ride height without it scrubbing the psg side feder under full compression. I had to comprimise and go back closer to the stock length to avoid rubbing.

In my experience the adj PHR is not neccessary for lowered cars, but different wheels and different lowering kits could change that.

94formulabz

Severous01,
Just to clarify, i said control arms themselves aren't any more beneficial on a lowered car, i did not say relocation brackets. I could probably dig up some old posts where i've adamantly recommended the relocation brackets.

White Knight,

Adjustable control arms aren't for dialing in yuor launch. To affect your hook on the launch you use lowering brackets. Adj contorl arms are used in conjunction with an adj torque arm to center large slicks in the wheel wells. You can also change the way your car hooks using an adjustable torque arm to change the pinion angle. I guess you could use adj LCA with the stock torque arm since the stocker is a slip fit in the front, but if you've got a car requireing adj LCA for large slicks is highly doubtfull that your running the stock TA. If you bought adj LCA planning ahead for future mods and don't have oversize slicks yet, then just adjust them to the stock length.



Brent