hey guys i have heard that if u lower your car u need to get an adjustable panhard bar so u can straighten the rear out. my question is how do u know how much to adjust it? do u just eye things up? thanks

 

Well, when you lower the vehicle, the panhard will push the whole axle outwards to the left of the vehicle if you were looking at it from the rear. I would measure the stock position in the horizontal direction of the lower panhard bolt, make sure the car is sitting on the ground. When you lower it, adjust the panhard to that same horizontal direction. Use a reference point that doesn't move and is easy to access such as the fender rim or framerail.

 

Roughly...
The rear end is supposed to "follow" the front end.

If you look at the rear end you will note that the panhard
rod is mounted to the frame in a single location and
the other end is mounted to the transaxle.

as the rear end moves up and down the panhard rod
transcribes an arc. This motion is partlly left to right.

As you lower your car the axle will naturally "move over"

Whether or not this is good or bad depends on how
misaligned the rear end was in the first place and whether
moving it over improve things or makes them worse.

Some guys cars were "wrong" before lowering and
when they lowered the car it got better.

These lucky guys "didn't ned no damn bar"

Sooo...

Get the car up on stands...
Jack the pumpkin up and down so you get a feel
for which way it goes and about how much.


Put it back on the ground and use a long straight edge
placed against your rear tires and have a look
at the relationship between the rear wheels and the front ones

The decide if moving your rear over wil make it "better"
or "worse"

 

well could i just lower it put the adjustable bar in and put in on the ground then get a straugh end and put it vertical against my tire and measure the distence from the fender lip and just keep adjusting it while its on the ground till the distance is the same on both sides. would that work? thanks. also the only reason i wunted to lower my car was for better traction, i wasn;t to worried about the looks of it. so do u think a 1 0r a 2 inch drop would give me better results as in drag racing traction and i wunt it to handle better. also i was thinkin hotchkis wut do u think

 

lowering will not help strait line traction. A higher center of gravity will help transfer weight to the rear end under acceleration. Just look at the gassers from the 50's and 60' they would actually raise their cars as high as possible. Lowering will help handling but irocs are pretty low to begin with. I'm sure others will add to this.

 

A old friend of mine lowered his and was a tenth or two slower in the 1/8 mile.