Panhard Rods

[GaryUnc]

Anybody know of a aftermarket panhard rod that will work on a CR, something from summit
maybe? Or do you have to get one special-made? I have a 95 mustang 8.8 rear.

GaryUnc

[Double Venom]

Gary,
With the 4 bar fox type rear end, why would you want to put a panhard bar on? With the wide lowers that come with the kit and the stock wide uppers, the rear is not allowed to move latterally.

At any rate, I don't know of any one that makes a bar for the 8.8's.
DV

[GaryUnc]

Thanks for the info DV, I had put a set of hotchkis adjustable upper cont. arms on since you saw it last, and wanted to know if a panhard rod would help.
GaryUnc

[Double Venom]

Send a pic!
Not sure I've seen those. How do you like em?
Why did you replace the stock arms? Just to change pinion angle?

Where did you get your re-inforced 8.8 cover plate. That was awesome, and since we are putting a new 8.8 independant rear under the DV that we have developed for a CR Cobra, we will need something back there "strong".
One more thing - have you seen or signed up for "Cobras across America" yet?

Hope to see you sometime this summer
DV

[GaryUnc]

Dv,
Don't have the ability to send a picture.
I got them to change the pinion angle and to
hold the rear in place. The engine is kind of strong and I didn't want to twist off any u-joints. As for the rear end cover I got it from summit, it has two bolts that sit on the bearing caps with I think about 12 foot lbs. of torque, (been awhile since I installed it)
this is supposed to strengthen the rear.
Don't know where to sign up for cobras across america. I'm having a tough time titleing the car seems like Maryland is difficult to deal with on kit cars. I do hope to see ya sometime,tried to get to Carlile this spring
but no luck, (would have probably got cought
driving all that way with no tags!)
GaryUnc.

[Double Venom]

Gary,
We've got another customer in Maryland we did a Cobra for, Dave....darn to long ago. I'll try to find his number and pass it on. I know he registered his without to much of a headache.

As far as the panhard bar goes, easy enough to make one. Just be carefull with the geometry. Two 5/8's Heim joints, with a 5/8's shaft, and a 1/2" piece of seamless pipe. cut the pipe to length and tap out. Weld or bolt on two 90- deg. flanges, bolt in place. That's it. (we do this for our streetrods)

Let me know if you do it, and how it works!
DV

[GaryUnc]

DV,
Let me know if you find his number, it may be of some help.
Thanks Gary

[CobraEd]

My rear axle is shifted over to the passengers side by about 1.5 - 2 inches. It has been this way since I bought the car. Any idea on a simple way to fix this. I don't know if its the body mount on the frame, or simply a mis-alignmant on the 4-link suspension.

[GaryUnc]

CobraEd
The only two things I can think of are the rubber bushings that come from the factory, they tend to wear out and allow the rear to shift back and forth. I installed the much stiffer racing bushings that come with the hotchkis upper adj. arms. The other would be that the frame mount is off an inch or so.
I have a CR. and I had to have the drivers side motor mount cut down a half inch, so the side pipes wouldn't hit the body, and the engine now sits level. The same might need done for your rear. (move the mount) The reason I asked about the panhard rod was because NASCAR uses the Ford 4 bar rear and they use adjustable panhard rods.
GaryUnc

[JimP]

Has anyone found a good solution for this besides fabricating your own? It would be nice to have the extra support as things start to wear in the rear.

JimP

[Curt C.]

My rear end moves around (lateral) too under hard cornering in road racing. Results in the slicks hitting the frame a little bit. I have been looking at the diagonal link that Competition Engineering sells. It attaches to a front link on one side and a rear link on the other side. It appears to be fully adjustable, serve the same purpose as a panhard rod and is relatively cheap at $70. Any one ever seen one of these?

[Leroy]

Check companies like Speedway and other circle track racing part manufacturing. They sell units that bolt to your axle or third member, as far as mounting to the chassis, most brackets have to be welded to the frame. They also sell bars and heim fittings.
Generally the circle track companys are fairly inexpensive.
I've have a bar on my rear and both ends are adjustable to control push or oversteer. Can lower bar or raise. I'am running a 9" w/ four link setup. Good Luck!
Lee

[Jack21]

GaryUnc, check out capitalareacobraclub.com. Half of us are from Virginia, and the other half from Maryland. Any of the MD folks should be able to help you through MD registration.

[klayfish]

I've been hoping someone else would bring this topic up. Would someone please help me. I have photos of my rear suspension in my gallery. Could someone please look at them and give me some advice. I autocross the car. My mechanic, who is a Cobra builder, wants to put a panhard bar on it, but the feedback I've been getting so far is that it isn't a good idea. Here's the catch. I can't afford to put an IRS on the car, and don't want to lay the money out for the 3 link set up right now (I heard that is the best solution with the 8.8 rear), as I'm doing other things to the car that take up my $$$. Should I put a panhard bar on my current set up, or leave it alone until I'm ready for the 3 link, or should I go an entirely different direction. I'm not extremely mechanical, so please put it in fairly simple terms.

Steve

[Curt C.]

Klayfish,

Lets diagnose your problem first. What is the car doing or not doing that inhibits your performance? Plenty of other things that can go wrong other than not having a panhard rod.

Curt

[klayfish]

Curt,
So far I haven't had much of a problem with the car. I've only had it to one autocross so far. But my mechanic recommended the panhard bar because he knows I autocross and feels that would help keep the rear end in line. I've noticed the car does step out slightly when going over larger bumps, but nothing that has really scared me so far. In the one autocross I took the car to, I found the car to be very loose. I ran the full season last year with a different car, so I wasn't chalking it up to driver inexperience. The car turned in pretty well, but got loose soon after. It got looser as I tried to get back into the gas coming out of the turns. I know this could be caused by a lot of things, so I think I'll try some simple things first, such as tire pressures. But I'm trying to decide if a panhard bar would do anything for my car at all, or if it's just pissing money away. I can't afford big bucks, but will do whatever I can to shave another 1/10th of a second off my times. Thanks for your help.

Steve

[Curt C.]

Beautiful car Steve, I love yellow. OK, from the pics I see that you are running the standard mustang 4 link with no sway bar? When you say loose, do you mean oversteer - rear end coming out, or understeer, front end getting pushed out. What is the front suspension comprised of? What tires are you using?

Curt

[klayfish]

Curt,
You'll have to bear with me on the suspension info. Since I didn't build the car, I don't know every nut and bolt on it (I wish I had enough skills to do it myself). The front suspension is the standard FFR kit suspension, which I believe is unequal length upper and lower A-arms (I know for sure about the lower one, I've cleaned it once or twice). I should probably snap a picture of it for a better description.
I'm running 17" wheels, with Firestone Firehawk SZ EPs, size 245/45 up front, 275/40 on the rear.
By loose, I mean oversteer. I have another autocross on Sunday, so I'll get more feedback then. But in my first event with it, on every run, the car turned in quickly. But once I was about at the apex of the turn, the back end would start to slide. I had to drive with an eggshell under my foot when getting into the gas coming out of the corner. The back felt pretty twitchy. I had to catch it several times, and nearly went all the way around once. It's fun to drift the car like that , but it's not the fastest way around the course, which is what I want.

Steve

[Curt C.]

Steve,

Do you have a sway bar up front? The normal prescription for oversteer is too loosen the rear end (smaller sway bar, more tire pressure etc.) or tighten the front end (tighter or larger sway bar less tire pressure etc.).

[cobraeric]

CobraEd,

I have exact the same problem with my rearend: 9" axle shifted about 1" to the passengers side. Since it's been a time since you posted this, what did you do to solve the problem?

Eric