Where can i get a panhard bar and tri link set up from any link/web would be great thanks.

 

www.gforceengineering.net

I bought a panhard from Jim recently to replace the broken one on my car. The one in my car is an earlier design I was able to repair and reinforce the broken mount. This was considerably easier than cutting the old one out and replacing it with this new one. The new design is a trick piece.

 

Yea Jim is a standup guy, I have his tri link and panhard in my project car. Real nice pieces. pics of my install can be seen in my thread: https://www.rx7club.com/1st-generation-specific-1979-1985-18/project-83-s-restoration-t2-swap-update-624258/

 

OVRREVD, the g-force center link is a nice piece. A bit of a pain in the *** to install but a great piece which I have in my 1st gen road race car. For a Pan hard bar I went with the iscracing.net unit because the bar can be mounted to either side for the chassis mount. The Pan hard kit comes all loose parts, with nothing pre welded. IIRC the g-force bar can only be mounterd to the right hand side of the chassis. The Pan hard bar is what determins your rear roll center height & the roll center height changes as you make a turn. If you road racing you should analize your track./tracks to determin which side of the chassis you want to the bar to.

 

Might also try ISC Racing. I installed their third link and panhard setup on my EP racecar, and I'm pretty impressed with it's design and strength. It's a nice piece (as is Jim Susko's Tri-Link) and pretty straightforward to install. Keep in mind that panhards handle a lot of force, and you need to take a look at it regularly if you intend to use it on a streetcar. A free floating rear end as a result of a broken panhard can ruin your whole day.

http://www.iscracing.net/

 

A few years ago, I saw an Aussie setup that used a Watts link with corrected geometry to harness the benefits of zero lateral motion without binding. Anybody know anything about this?

 

I like the watts link that total control makes for early mustangs. It mounts to the bottom of the diff to keep a low roll center.

 

Nice find -- looks like a well designed setup. There's a lot of bracing on the rear axle housing for fore-aft loads.

 

The stock watts link is pretty good actually. The linkage ratios keep the rear moving straight up and down over a pretty wide range. The bind is from the upper links. The problem with the stock watts link is the roll center location.
Go with the GForce parts, there is a lot more time modeling the mounting locations on thousands of dollars of suspension programs. Its not a copy like the ISC parts.
My car was the first Tri-Link equiped car Mike at ISC had ever seen about 10 years ago. First he said "thats not legal", then he's selling parts just like what he saw under the car.
This happened after I sold the car and he did some work for the new owner.

 

Can that total control set up be mod for a fb

 

Anything's possible, how much money do you have? If short on money can you weld, re-engineer and do it all yourself?

That is a sweet set-up though...

 

That looks really heavy. But very sweet and rigid at the same time. One question though, so the 2 shock assembly's at the bottom replace the leaf springs on those cars? Is that what is meant? I wounder if the guys with the granny speed shop rear end can adapt this setup to their rear ends. Would be really interesting ... can someone call directfreak? lol

 

If I recall correctly SDJ also had something like this for sale too.

 

that's the weirdest watts link I've ever seen. It's more like 2 panhard bars. notice that it's located on top and perpendictlar to the axel. weird...
One reason I prefer a watts to a panhard is that it keeps the axle perfectly centerd and does not allow for any side to side movement where as a panhard will.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-J4xkHuP7QY
Notice the axle stays perfectly centered through it's range
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMsiiZvZXDk

 

A watts link can be verticle or horizontal in how it swings. That total performance set-up could be a view from the bottom. Now that would be awesome to have all the spring and shock weight below the rear end.

When Jim was first doing the FB suspension he did all kinds of modeling to see if a watts link (which can be better most of the time) was worth it on these cars in a better location. IIRC there was not enough variation in tire loading or roll steer to go through the trouble.
If the panhard is long and level at normal ride height the lateral movement is maybe 1/16th of an inch when the car leans.

 

A symmetrical watts is how we plan to go. With the pivot point on the frame rather than the axle housing. This eliminates the moving roll center you get with the watts pivot point mounted to the rear end housing like stock.

-billy

 

[QUOTE=jgrewe]That total performance set-up could be a view from the bottom. Now that would be awesome to have all the spring and shock weight below the rear end.

That pic is from the bottom, pretty wild setup.
http://www.mustangdepot.com/graphics/RPSS-FD_DS_WEB.pdf

Bwaits, is what youre talking about the 3rd pic Hyper4mance2k posted?
I couldn't figure it out till you posted.
So the outer ends of the links mount to the axel?
That looks like it woudn't add too much weight.

Here,

 

Through out my research the biggest reson Jim did not make a different watts was cost inveoled and he knows how cheap 1st gen owners are. A redesigned watts offers a some improvement over a panhard, but at double to tripple the cost.

 

And the weight.

 

[QUOTE=Stevan]Yes, the outer ends connect to the axle. The roll center is at the center pivot point. That point does not change durring bump nor droop like stock set up.

-billy

 

Can't find them -- do you have contact info?

 

Not around any longer. Their system was an adjustable pivot point for the stock system.

-billy

 

The height of the roll centers of a car's suspension are VERY important. The stock Watt's linkage center pivot point is the rear roll center, and it is too high for track use. A G-Force Engineering panhard bar can give you the badly needed lower rear roll center without loosing all your rear ground clearance. Those alternate funky Watt's link designs are either too heavy, have too little ground clearance, or if they do have ground clearance then their roll center is too high. For performance use the Panhard bar has not been beat on a road race track.

 

Ya as mentioned they are no longer in business but if you post up in the race section they still have a few things kicking around for sale. This is how the setup look mind yuou this one got broken off for some reason. But as you can tell, you will see that it always the finetuning of up down movement of the watts link but still not centered. They would use adjustable watts links with spherical ends:






As i understand, some people like banzai Racing and Rotaryshack have acquired their header rights, so they might of aquired some other rights with it too. They also did really great headers as shown (this is my own):

 

From what I have heard a low connection point for the panhard rod or watts linkage is very desirable for the first gens. It can reduce or eliminate roll oversteer. If the rear roll axis points down from back to front you will get roll oversteer causing the rearend to get loose when the body leans over. The shallower the angle the better. A slight upward angle will give roll understeer and improve rear stability. I believe the rear roll axis is defined as the line that connects points representing the side view of the panhard rod(or watts pickup) to the instant center (convergence point) of the axle links.