Fish tailing rear end
10-18-2013, 01:15 PM
#21
10-18-2013, 01:53 PM
#22
+1 for a more balanced setup.
All poly panhard, panhard relocation, poly/poly bushings on lca, torque arm etc.
My first change after that drag setup was that I went from 35/25 to a 35/22 and noticed that on street, the car behaved much better. The 25, poly combo locked up the rear too quickly and binded. This meant that on street since you aren't dealing with ideal traction to both tires most of the time, you ended up getting squirrly. (grooves, oil, dirt, inconsistent pavement wear, angled roads for drainage etc)
The key to getting it to grip better for street conditions is to allow the car to freely move its suspension as you hammer it. I improved it with the 22mm bar, but made a really good change when I went to poly/roto-joint lca's. The poly on the body side kept the lca line up and the roto joint allowed the rear axle to "conform" to the road better during the weight transfer from front to rear. This changed a lot and let me go harder in turns, off/on ramps and general street launches but the design of the panhard is inherently flawed.
As the car launches, the triangulation of the panhard design dictates that the center of the car relative to the thrust angle will move to the drivers side. The result is as your car moves forward your car is cocked pointed to the passenger direction by a few degrees as the car is squatted. As the suspension evens out again, you may not have compensated for the steering change and will find the wheels now pointed to the drivers side once it all evens out. The result will be a "squirrly" car on the street. Lowering your car reduces this, but it's not gone, its just lessened...
My final change was going to a watt's link that basically gives you a true rear even squat during a hard launch. This also fixes a lot of rubbing issues if you run 315 tires. I have a much harder time inducing a spin now for my car.
All poly panhard, panhard relocation, poly/poly bushings on lca, torque arm etc.
My first change after that drag setup was that I went from 35/25 to a 35/22 and noticed that on street, the car behaved much better. The 25, poly combo locked up the rear too quickly and binded. This meant that on street since you aren't dealing with ideal traction to both tires most of the time, you ended up getting squirrly. (grooves, oil, dirt, inconsistent pavement wear, angled roads for drainage etc)
The key to getting it to grip better for street conditions is to allow the car to freely move its suspension as you hammer it. I improved it with the 22mm bar, but made a really good change when I went to poly/roto-joint lca's. The poly on the body side kept the lca line up and the roto joint allowed the rear axle to "conform" to the road better during the weight transfer from front to rear. This changed a lot and let me go harder in turns, off/on ramps and general street launches but the design of the panhard is inherently flawed.
As the car launches, the triangulation of the panhard design dictates that the center of the car relative to the thrust angle will move to the drivers side. The result is as your car moves forward your car is cocked pointed to the passenger direction by a few degrees as the car is squatted. As the suspension evens out again, you may not have compensated for the steering change and will find the wheels now pointed to the drivers side once it all evens out. The result will be a "squirrly" car on the street. Lowering your car reduces this, but it's not gone, its just lessened...
My final change was going to a watt's link that basically gives you a true rear even squat during a hard launch. This also fixes a lot of rubbing issues if you run 315 tires. I have a much harder time inducing a spin now for my car.
10-22-2013, 09:43 AM
#24
TECH Fanatic
Sorry for the late reply ... just seeing this. It was normal driving on the highway. There are a few "bends" that I could always count on my chassis to lean pretty good when taking them. It's not like you're going to slow down to 50 when the speed limit is 65. You just hang on and say your prayers. I even played around with the LCAs to the top hole of the relocation bracket vs. the bottom hole. Made NO difference.
10-22-2013, 04:56 PM
#25
Sorry for the late reply ... just seeing this. It was normal driving on the highway. There are a few "bends" that I could always count on my chassis to lean pretty good when taking them. It's not like you're going to slow down to 50 when the speed limit is 65. You just hang on and say your prayers. I even played around with the LCAs to the top hole of the relocation bracket vs. the bottom hole. Made NO difference.
10-22-2013, 07:34 PM
#26
When you describe lean, are you talking about your everyday "body roll", or is the rear actually coming loose and you are going sideways.
Going into any turn at speed, the car should "roll" and shift its weight on the outer tires. It should not lead to a loss of confidence in steering control or require any throttle modulation outside of an extreme turn. I think with the panhard, the most pronounced indication of a binded rear suspension is going into a turn and hitting a bump. If your suspension has problems or is binding, the car will "hop" and shift thrust angle. You will always find yourself correcting in these situations or on some cases having the rear go squirrly on you.
Going into any turn at speed, the car should "roll" and shift its weight on the outer tires. It should not lead to a loss of confidence in steering control or require any throttle modulation outside of an extreme turn. I think with the panhard, the most pronounced indication of a binded rear suspension is going into a turn and hitting a bump. If your suspension has problems or is binding, the car will "hop" and shift thrust angle. You will always find yourself correcting in these situations or on some cases having the rear go squirrly on you.
10-22-2013, 07:50 PM
#27
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Does the car feel like the rear end is "floating" from side to side? To me it sounds like the same problem I had a while back. My rear end felt almost like it was sliding from side to side under normal or cruising speed. Mostly over 55mph. It was the axle shaft bearings in my case. Grab the rear wheel up top and pull as hard as you can. You will hear it "clunk" as you pull it. Now keep in mind it is a "clunk" not the normal axle play that you will also hear.
10-23-2013, 08:04 PM
#28
TECH Fanatic
Don't want to steal the OP's thread but to answer your question - I have a Founders on car adjustable panhard bar with rod ends. After I swapped out the LCAs - with the stockers and new rubber, problem went away. I knew there was a lack of articulation when deflating my tires down to like 28 psi helped (with the poly bushings.)
10-23-2013, 11:57 PM
#29
To get your articulation in the rear. poly rod end combo lca is the way to go or stock. That change over poly poly gave my panhard based setup a lot of its handling and confidence back. With a watts link in. its a night day type improvement in handling.
