It appears that I got the very last G-Force Panhard bar Jim is going to sell. That's what he told me today anyway. A little piece of history. Now to find a tri-link bar...

 

Very cool! I actually removed the tri link and panhard bar from my car because of the noise (guess I'm a baby lol) I couldn't get everything out (because its weld in) but I have most of the parts and they are just sitting there. I'd consider selling them if you're intersted

 

WTF?!?!?! I called him last summer and he said he had neither, so I just settled on the book. Oh wells, I got one used on the FB about a month before it got totaled. Just by itself it makes a HUGE difference.

 

Still debating on whether or not to install mine. Just not sure of how much difference it could possibly make on my car. She handles pretty damned well already. I'm still curious though...




.

 

82Transam has sold his trilink to me. So over the winter I'm planning to put on the panhard and trilink. I'm going to do some customizing to the parts to make them a little friendlier for a street car so I'll record the steps here as I go through them.

1st - Designing the solution

As 82Transam will tell you, it makes a bunch of noise as the suspension moves around. I talked to Jim about this and his statement that the issue was mostly caused by the head of the rod end hitting the washers or clevis as it reaches the end of it's travel. Imagine as one wheel moves up on a bump, it twists the ball joints in the trilink bar. There is similar motion in the panhard as the axle goes through it's motion. Jim suggested a rubber washer that cushions the edges of the rod end as it comes to the end of it's travel.

My other concern is the long-term integrity of the ball joint as dirt, water, and other road debris collects and eats away at the race.

I think I found the solution to both of these issues with a dust guard that is overmolded onto a washer. It appears to make a seal on the body of the tie rod and cushions the landing on full travel. So I'll buy 8 of these.



While I'm at it, I'm going to replace some of the flat washers in the design with beveled washers to allow maximum roll to the rod end. One on each end of all of the rod ends.



Also, since the two flat plates that make up the clevis for the trilink rod end at the axle is still welded to 82Transam's car, I'm going to need to fab a new one. I'm going to "box" the two plates in at the rear of the car. This should help strengthen even the load on the weld joints a bit. I'm also rounding off the end, not needed, but it makes me feel better.



Once all the parts are collected. I'll take some pictures.

 

This is awesome

 

I'm definatly curious to see how this works out for you. I agree that most of the noise is the rod end hitting the bracket as it twists etc. The one thing you might not be able to get rid of (and it might not be a concern to you, but it was to me) was all the diff whining/whirring that is transferred into the body of the car...
Nice drawings etc, this will be a good documentation of the process.

 

I like the rod ends you've chosen. I was contemplating something along the same lines if I installed mine. Noise was the biggest complaint I heard about this setup...



.

 

on the AE86's the solution to make it quiet was to have a rod end on the diff side, and a big urethane bushing on the body end.

http://battleversion.com/battle-version/toyota/

look at that panhard.

 

The other thing that I'm thinking about adding is a urethane sheet between the tunnel bracket and the body to isolate some of those low level vibrations.

http://www.psiurethanes.com/sheet-an...13c8k9q-17uocl

I took out the sound deadening pad from under the storage bins once and the noise from the transmission is surprisingly loud. I don't want that again.

 

I bet that still makes noise with just the one rod end.

 

If you do put something like that between the bracket and body you might want to get some nylon lock nuts to make sure nothing comes loose. In the directions Jim says that you shouldn't have any undercoating etc inbetween the body and bracket otherwise it could move around a bit and come loose...

 

Understood. I'm thinking of going with nylocks instead of loctite so that the bolts can be tightened easily.

Another option is to use a short spacer that allows the nut to fully tighten down on the bolt and compress the sheet at the same time. This way there is enough torque on the nut that it will stay tighened even if the urethane sheet compresses a little.



Similar to the way most suspension arms are mounted.

 

i've never actually ridden in a car with one, but i could ask. i bet it fixes most of it.

half the noise on my old panhard was the bracket flopping around, i had an older design though

 

^Ah you had the old bolt in version he sold ~10 years ago then. Yeah the noise from the panhard wasn't too bad, it was really the tri link that bugged me - transferred too much diff noise.
Definatly looking forward to what you come up with Purple82. Definatly have some solid ideas.

 

The tunnel bracket has just enough room for the ball to fit. No room for the washers in the dust shields or the chamfered washers. I'm thinking that I may reweld the bracket to fit them.

 

Just be careful that it doesn't interfere with the driveshaft. Jim had to machine that one bolt down so that it wouldn't hit, so there isn't much room to work with there...

 

Interesting, test fitting looks like there's plenty of room around the bracket. I don't plan on changing the position of the rod ends, just widening the space between the sides of the bracket for clearance of my extra parts. Looks like there's plenty of space for it.

 

The seals and washers came last night.











The seal is two parts, a washer with a rubber cup molded to it. I think what I'm going to do on the chassis mount is cut the washer out of the cup and just use the cup to seal against the heim joint. That way I won't have to make the chassis mount any wider and risk touching the driveshaft. I'll use the seals and washers on the axle. That gives the axle side more allowable movement.

 

Is that rod end teflon lined (or similar)?

 

Yes, they are.

 

Where are you ordering your parts? I have a tri-link, and am waiting patiently to get a panhard. I will probably be living in this thread.

Did you replace the ends that came with it, I didn't think they were teflon lined.

Again: sources please. Oh and in closing: YOU EFFING ROCK!

 

Check out midwest control products.

The heim joints Jim uses are from a different source, but equivalent. The instructions mention it, and joints come in a bag with the part number on them so you know what the materials are if you look up the part.

 

My new thought is to bolt the bracket directly to the chassis as intended and try it out. If I can't take the harshness or transmitted noise, I'll replace the chassis heim joint with a joint, urethane bushing, and steel collar like the AE86 joint linked above.

 

http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Garage...-RH,53467.html

This is similar, but not quite the right size.