Is a Panhard Rod Necessary?

[BoyRacer]

A panhard rod is necessary and a rear anti-roll is a big mistake. Traction bars ( anti-tramp bars) are very helpful on a street car and absolutely necessary on a race car. .

 

[HealeyRick]

Rather than use the "Traction Masters" style of traction bars, which I felt might decrease ground clearance, I added an extra half-leaf outside the spring pack per this article: https://www.britishv8.org/Articles/Easy-Traction.htm. It's a pretty easy mod, the hardest part of which is finding an old pair of springs to cut up. I haven't really thrashed the car yet, so can't tell what improvements they've made and would be interested in the views of the suspension wizards here. This is what the mod looks like on a Healey:

 

[Genos2]

Hey Rick, what be leaking? Rear shock seals? cheers

 

[steveg]

Maybe that's the automatic rustproofing feature.

 

[HealeyRick]

Not leaks, nor automatic rustproofing ... but real, honest-to-God, period-applied rustproofing. This is what Healeys delivered in New England looked like in order to (mostly vainly) attempt to keep rust at bay. Not anything as fancy as "Ziebart" but your basic spray on asphalt-like substance made of gooey tar. The drips are where the undercoating sagged after being sprayed. The shiny parts aren't fluid, but a reflection of the camera flash. I could say the rustproofing was extremely effective as this car had only a little rust in the doglegs and lower front fenders while having a rust free chassis and floorpans. But the likely cause was that it was taken off the street in 1965 and turned into an SCCA racer and then spent the rest of its time as an autocrosser until I got it. It's why I never felt much guilt over doing the V8 swap. Doing a concours-style restoration would have been extremely labor intensive what with stripping off all that undercoating and the car had it's share of bumps and dents over its racing career. And since it's a BJ7, it would never have the value of a BJ8.

 

[dougie]

:emmersed:

Rather than use the "Traction Masters" style of traction bars, which I felt might decrease ground clearance, I added an extra half-leaf outside the spring pack per this article: https://www.britishv8.org/Articles/Easy-Traction.htm. It's a pretty easy mod, the hardest part of which is finding an old pair of springs to cut up. I haven't really thrashed the car yet, so can't tell what improvements they've made and would be interested in the views of the suspension wizards here. This is what the mod looks like on a Healey:

Hey Rick -

Tar belongs on roofs and streets....Not on our precious Healeys. :emmersed:

 

[HealeyRick]

Dougie,

I needed the V8 to haul that extra weight around. But it did keep the rust away from the chassis, which is a huge deal out here.

 

[BBH]

I had to modify my rear shock mount to add the "ear" for the panhard rod. See:
https://www.pbase.com/stevegerow/image/154242713

Was not able to re-weld the stock mount without removing the axle.

Steve, if you were installing the Cape set-up again, at a bare chassis stage, would you have changed the standard mount in any way - and if so how or would you go with the shock mount from the start. As you can no doubt guess I am planning to install a Cape set-up as part of the restoration but can still make enhancements to the chassis pre paint.

 

[steveg]

Steve, if you were installing the Cape set-up again, at a bare chassis stage, would you have changed the standard mount in any way - and if so how or would you go with the shock mount from the start. As you can no doubt guess I am planning to install a Cape set-up as part of the restoration but can still make enhancements to the chassis pre paint.

I wouldn't use the Cape panhard setup. The stock rod uses rubber bushes at both ends; the Cape is a beefier rod with a heim joint setup at the axle end. It's a nice-looking setup, but I believe the beefier rod doesn't make any difference and the heim joint transmits more shock to the axle mount.
Boy Racer or Dougie could chime in on this, but I believe the stock rod is plenty strong in tension or compression and there's no advantage to a heavier rod - has one of these ever bent or broken?

Since the car's apart, suggest taking a close look at the panhard mount inside the left side spring box. You may want to add more welding there to make sure it never comes undone. If it breaks you have to remove the axle to fix it. You can see the mount here: https://www.pbase.com/stevegerow/image/141083742
I'd weld the sides of the "T" piece inside the spring box. As it is only the front edge and underneath rear edge of spring box are welded.

The Cape rear shock setup (at the time I bought it - early 2000s) was also a mixed blessing. On my BN6, the extended length of the supplied shocks was slightly too short. So the axle would hit the shock's lower limit before coming to rest on the rubber pads atop the frame rails. The result was the lower shock mounts eventually broke. See: https://www.pbase.com/stevegerow/image/122528623

If your car is a 4-seater, the Cape setup will undoubtedly work properly as-is. In the UK, you're in a better position to get satisfaction from Cape if there are any problems. They stopped returning my emails after I started having problems.

I like Cape's upper-rear mounting setup for the shocks, as it's out of the way - unlike the Putzke, which mounts on the sides. Never had any problems with the strength of the Cape upper mount and its reinforcing plates. For the 2-seater, the reinforcing plates had to be bent slightly to fit the evidently different angle of the bulkhead - this was easy.

See:
https://www.pbase.com/stevegerow/image/39218390

 

[BoyRacer]

At one point I built a beefier panhard bar with Heim joints. In the end I used the stock bar with a polyurethane busing on one end and a rubber busing on the other, and that is what I have been using since 1990. About 5 or 6 years ago I had to weld up a big crack that appeared on the bracket that is attached to the rear end housing. This tells me that the bar is doing exactly what it is supposed to do. The stock bar is more than adequate for the job. And, once again, the panhard bar is necessary for "good" handling.

 

[Deamaker 5]

So gents ! Very interesting about panhard rods . A question that I have is would one still be required on a Jules frame ?

 

[Healey Nut]

I was specifically told by Marty himself years ago when he built my frame/superstructure for my Tri Carb project that the panhard rod was NOT required when I got round to rebuilding .
Marty also sold me some of his uprated rear springs to go with the frame etc .
He told me due to the much improved frame rigidity and the uprated springs it was NLR .

I still have an original one all sandblasted painted up with brackets etc and new bushings if anyone wants a replacement .

 

[Randy Forbes]

An alternative to a Panhard rod, the articulated A-arm; lateral location plus acceleration/braking reaction control.

After close to thirty (<30) years of diff lube weeping down the threads and self-lubricating the 3/4" Heim joint, I had finally gotten around to making its mount a dry socket!

 

[dougie]

I reinforced the axle mounting point with an additional metal bracket welded in to support my upgraded panrod and added polyurethane bushing at the chassis mounting point and have had no failures under heavy racing conditions.

 

[Bob_Spidell]

Panhard PLUS radius arms? Best of both worlds?