Get rid of the panhard bar?

[Mattis]

Going to put bags on my 245... Sometime within the next billion years.

Was thinking about removing the panhard bar, to get rid of the side to side movement, when lifting and lowering.
Was thinking about welding in a big X between the lower control arms.
Bad idea? If so, what else can I do?

 

[D.E]

Ett kryss mellan b?rarmarna blir bara som en j?ttegrov kr?ngningsh?mmare. Det du beh?ver ?r en wattl?nk. Wattl?nken ?r som tv? panhardstag som man monterar p? diffk?pan med en roterande led. S?k p? Google s? ser du hur det fungerar och det finns nog kit att k?pa till 240.

 

[Mattis]

D'oh, I had forgot about watt link

 

[Silver]

Haven't seen anyone run a parallel linkage on a 240 before. Could be cool!

 

[badvlvo]

Ett kryss mellan b?rarmarna blir bara som en j?ttegrov kr?ngningsh?mmare. Det du beh?ver ?r en wattl?nk. Wattl?nken ?r som tv? panhardstag som man monterar p? diffk?pan med en roterande led. S?k p? Google s? ser du hur det fungerar och det finns nog kit att k?pa till 240.

What the bork???

D'oh, I had forgot about watt link

Yeah, pretty sure that's what DE said above. That's your best bet to control lateral movement of the axle. Doesn't SAM sell one?

 

[vvpete]

Use a Bimba air cylinder.

Should be easy to do. Cut the stock panhard bar in 1/2 and splice the Bimba cylinder of choice into the bar. Run the pneumatic lines off you bag pump and system to actuate the air cylinder so that the bar lengthens or shortens as the bags fills or deflate for different ride height.

Depending on what size and pressure of the Bimba air cylinder you can make the panhard bar either a fixed length each time or make it an active part of the suspension. Sort of like those steering dampers you were able to get from JC Whitney, but with more control over the length and stifness of the air shock.

 

[D.E]

Sorry for the borkiness earlier, I was tired and on my phone and couldn't be bothered to fight the swe-autocorrect.

http://www.myranesracing.com/store/index.php?id_product=1130&controller=product

I guess you could build it yourself since the kits seem to be quite expensive and it looks simple enough. Running without a panhard bar is not going to work. Older cars like my Taunus don't have one, but the fact that it has leaf springs compensates a bit for that. The handling is still sketchy and returns from slides or hard cornering are brutal since the whole body shifts sides with the axle staying in place. Welding an X between the control arms will do nothing to compensate for this as the rear axle needs to be connected to the body of the car somehow.

A 240 without a panhard bar will bend the control arms and torque rods pretty quickly as the whole rear axle is allowed to swing from side to side. When the bushings bottom out you'll bend metal and snap bolts.

 

[Mueller]

http://www.fays2.net/

Another way to locate the rear end.

530turbo has done this with his 245, using a Ford 8.8 rear assembly but the same concept applies.

 

[blkaplan]

put the pivot on the chassis, its better then being mounted on the axle.

like what the fays kit does.

 

[530turbo]

Got my set up from fays and the gentleman will help out with what ever you need. He's done calcs on all his products. Nice stuff! Check out my STIFFY thread, have his parts on my watts setup.