J&M Rod/Rod Aluminum LCAs and Panhard Bar Review
09-26-2007, 02:40 PM
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J&M Rod/Rod Aluminum LCAs and Panhard Bar Review Current suspension mods are located in my sig.
I replaced my Spohn poly/poly LCAs and PHB with J&M (hotpart.com) Rod/Rod Aluminum LCAs and PHB and couldn't be happier.
Handling:
The rod/rod bars cured the extra oversteer that the poly/poly bars gave me.
When taking a specific turn at a specific speed with the poly bars I could feel that the rear end was on the brink of breaking loose and in some occasions did.
Taking the same turn at the same if not higher speed with the rod bars gave the car a very balanced feeling and is making the car a lot more fun to drive.
Noise:
I hear no additional road noise. The rod ends are a 3-piece design made by FK and come with a Teflon coating. The rod ends were great for be especially since I have SFCs and could never get the poly bushing on the passenger side body mount tight enough to keep it from POPPING with making a right turn into driveways or sometimes when even making a normal right hand turn.
Harshness:
I ride does not feel any different than when I had the poly bars on. Im sure you would notice an increase in harshness when going from rubber to rod but I did not notice it going from poly to rod. If anything the car feels a lot more solid and stable.
Installation:
Installation is straight forward and I only ran into 2 small problems.
1. I can not access the body mount panhard bar jam nut with a 1 1/8" wrench because the bracket is in the way. If I ever have to adjust it again (which I probably wont since my rear is perfectly centered) I would have to remove that side of the panhard bar in order to loosen the jam nut.
2. If you have LCA Relocation Brackets the supplied metal spacers/bushings that go between the rod end and the mount will need to be filed down a bit in order to fit (might be different depending on which brackets you have). Made my install time a lot longer (1hr) but was able to get them filed down with a cheap old file.
Weight:
The bars were about have the weight of the Spohn mild steel bars which is always nice.
Misc.
Panhard Bar uses 21mm/18mm wrenches/sockets
LCAs use 18mm/18mm wrenches/sockets
LCAs body mount with UMI SFCs uses 3/4" / 3/4" wrenches/sockets
Jam nut uses 1 1/8" wrench
machined hex on bars use 1" wrench
I replaced my Spohn poly/poly LCAs and PHB with J&M (hotpart.com) Rod/Rod Aluminum LCAs and PHB and couldn't be happier.
Handling:
The rod/rod bars cured the extra oversteer that the poly/poly bars gave me.
When taking a specific turn at a specific speed with the poly bars I could feel that the rear end was on the brink of breaking loose and in some occasions did.
Taking the same turn at the same if not higher speed with the rod bars gave the car a very balanced feeling and is making the car a lot more fun to drive.
Noise:
I hear no additional road noise. The rod ends are a 3-piece design made by FK and come with a Teflon coating. The rod ends were great for be especially since I have SFCs and could never get the poly bushing on the passenger side body mount tight enough to keep it from POPPING with making a right turn into driveways or sometimes when even making a normal right hand turn.
Harshness:
I ride does not feel any different than when I had the poly bars on. Im sure you would notice an increase in harshness when going from rubber to rod but I did not notice it going from poly to rod. If anything the car feels a lot more solid and stable.
Installation:
Installation is straight forward and I only ran into 2 small problems.
1. I can not access the body mount panhard bar jam nut with a 1 1/8" wrench because the bracket is in the way. If I ever have to adjust it again (which I probably wont since my rear is perfectly centered) I would have to remove that side of the panhard bar in order to loosen the jam nut.
2. If you have LCA Relocation Brackets the supplied metal spacers/bushings that go between the rod end and the mount will need to be filed down a bit in order to fit (might be different depending on which brackets you have). Made my install time a lot longer (1hr) but was able to get them filed down with a cheap old file.
Weight:
The bars were about have the weight of the Spohn mild steel bars which is always nice.
Misc.
Panhard Bar uses 21mm/18mm wrenches/sockets
LCAs use 18mm/18mm wrenches/sockets
LCAs body mount with UMI SFCs uses 3/4" / 3/4" wrenches/sockets
Jam nut uses 1 1/8" wrench
machined hex on bars use 1" wrench
09-26-2007, 04:07 PM
#2
Good write up!
With this:
"2. If you have LCA Relocation Brackets the supplied metal spacers/bushings that go between the rod end and the mount will need to be filed down a bit in order to fit (might be different depending on which brackets you have). Made my install time a lot longer (1hr) but was able to get them filed down with a cheap old file."
I know going from BMR to LG arms I just expanded the RLB with a pair of pliers vs. filing down the spacers.
With this:
"2. If you have LCA Relocation Brackets the supplied metal spacers/bushings that go between the rod end and the mount will need to be filed down a bit in order to fit (might be different depending on which brackets you have). Made my install time a lot longer (1hr) but was able to get them filed down with a cheap old file."
I know going from BMR to LG arms I just expanded the RLB with a pair of pliers vs. filing down the spacers.
09-27-2007, 05:23 PM
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It looks like it would be hard to access the passenger side panhard bar jam nut with a 1 1/8" wrench. I tried and it didn't fit between the bracket. So you might have to
keep the jam nuts loose when you install the bar
adjust it to center the rear
tighten the drivers side jam nut
*remove the passenger side bolt and remove that end of the panhard bar
tighten the jam nut
*reinstall the panhard bar in the passenger side mount and torque everything down
It should not take too much extra time since when you first install the bar you probably don't even need to tighten the nut and bolt on the passenger side mount, just put the bolt in, adjust the bar, then pull the bolt and bar (on passenger side), tighten the jam nut and reinstall the bar.
keep the jam nuts loose when you install the bar
adjust it to center the rear
tighten the drivers side jam nut
*remove the passenger side bolt and remove that end of the panhard bar
tighten the jam nut
*reinstall the panhard bar in the passenger side mount and torque everything down
It should not take too much extra time since when you first install the bar you probably don't even need to tighten the nut and bolt on the passenger side mount, just put the bolt in, adjust the bar, then pull the bolt and bar (on passenger side), tighten the jam nut and reinstall the bar.
