Just as the subject says...

Backing away from my garage door to let a buddy back his car out of my garage (just put a new T5 in a 88 Thunderbird). I turn left into the grass and heard BANG and the sound of something scraping loudly. At first I thought I hit one of my trash cans. I looked around and saw the trash cans were next to the garage. **** it. I get out of the car, look around and go back in the garage.

I drive the Thunderbird up and down the street a few times, stopping back at the garage occasionally to adjust the clutch until I get it right.

Get back in the Camaro. Pull out of the grass. Snap the throttle to get it sideways (acting an *** since the grass was wet and the driveway was dry) and it went around. But it didnt feel right. And I heard that damned scraping/grinding noise again. I get out and look at the left-rear tire. ITS SITTING ABOUT 3-4 INCHES TOO FAR IN THE FENDER. I knew then EXACTLY what it was...

I get under the car and look. The heim-joint on the passenger side PULLED OUT OF THE PANHARD TUBE, taking the threads with it! ****!

Whats scary is this...

Friday night, I take the Camaro to Lowes to get a fresh bottle of propane for my garage heater. I WAS FLYING TO AND FROM THE LOWES. I heard something pop once or twice and didnt think about it, only because the rear of the car is loud as heck anyway (heim jointed tubular LCA's and panhard bar = BANG and POP on every bump). Had that thing broke during the trip to and from Lowes, I would have wrecked and possibly had that propane tank burst. When I say I was flying, believe me. I had the RS on FULL TILT friday evening!

I couldnt tell you why this happened. Thank god it happened in the driveway and not on the road.

That sucks...how about some pics

I am ordering a Spohn panhard bar on Monday. I will take pics once I get it out.

Major "pucker factor" there...

Yeah! Tell me about it! I stood and looked at that car for at least 30 minutes after I pulled it back in the garage. I was saying to myself "What if...?".


The man upstairs was on my side, I can tell you that. When I turned back on my street Friday evening, I kicked the tail around a lil bit, just being an azz. What if the panhard bar broke while I was doing that???

Welcome to the " A Granateli XXXXX broke and almost killed me" club. Do some searching on the mustang boards and you'll see that most of their stuff is grade A junk and the rest is copied from companies that took the time to properly engineer their stuff.

Thanks! I think...

Sounds like a weak part, weak at the adjustment point. I kick out the tail and do donuts all the time with the stock stamped panhardbar and it dosnt break. You could try to follow up with the manufacturer, but good chance it said "off road use only" somewhere (liability copout).

FYI...

I ordered a Spohn adjustable tubular panhard bar this AM. I ordered it made with CHROME-MOLY, powder coated BLACK, and with QA1 rod ends on BOTH ENDS.

That really sucks!! You will definetly be happy with the Spohn. I have been with mine!

It does suck, actually...

I cant call Granatelli since I am not the original purchaser of this panhard bar. I bought it from a friend who had it on his 97 SS Camaro. He was shocked! He apologized repeatedly but it isnt his fault. I bought this thing from him almost 3 years ago.

I havent been in the garage to even LOOK at the Camaro since Saturday night. I dont wanna see it until I get my new Spohn bar. Then I will take pics and you all can toss around the question of "how and why did it fail?".

I talked to Steve Spohn yesterday morning. I think he was a little amazed also. I asked him about the Granatelli stuff being junk and he didnt want to comment. THAT WAS VERY PROFESSIONAL OF HIM, I must say. That says a lot to me about his company and I will be ordering more stuff from him in the future.

spohn stuff breaks too, so it's not like any company is without parts failure.

every company has failures.. its just something that happens.. one of my comp cams solid lifters collapsed on me in 3 days.. and i got jack s.h.i.t for it.. just because its "top-of-the-line" doesnt mean it wont break.. it just means that its made well and probably of high quality materials..

XPNDBL3 and 5678TA,

I agree with you that every company has failures. But, I read about less breakage of Spohn stuff.

I saw someone break a NAME BRAND torque arm at an F-body shoot out. I also saw someone snap a LCA at the SAME SHOOT OUT. I know that there is no such thing as a bullet-proof part.

Spohn seems to be trusted a lot more on these boards. Word of mouth says a lot.

Oh yeah... I received my panhard bar last night. I will be putting it on when I get home TONIGHT!

Pics! Like you all havent seen one of these before...

The typical reason for this type of failure is that the lock nut was loose. Not saying that was the cause, just that it is the most common cause.

When the lock nut is loose the joint wobbles and pulls/pushes on the threads. Being the tubing is softer then the joint, it loses out.

RBob.

Hmm... I will check that when I take the old bar off this evening. I recently tightened it up when I changed the gear oil in the diff. This was in July, IIRC.

OK... Finally I have PICS of the bar when it came off of the car. It LOOKS like the threads just pulled out. You can see the threads in the bar are stripped. On the heim joint, you can see where the exposed threads are rusted and the unrusted section of threads that ere in the bar itself. Take a look and tell me what you think. Oh, the Spohn bar is in and its a lot lighter than the Granatelli bar.

Not enough thread engagement. Is that bar aluminum or steel? As it is a solid bar, if steel I can imagine it being quite heavy.

RBob.

Hey... I was thinking the same thing about the thread engagement. I had to adjust it out when I first installed it on my RS.

Its a solid steel bar. Its a lot heavier than the Spohn bar. The Spohn bar is STUPID LIGHT compared to the Granatelli bar.

I took the car out for a test ride last night and the rear of the car is a lot quieter now when going over bumps. I also noticed that the previous owner removed the heat shield between the muffler and the gas tank. Is that gonna be a problem?

Yes, it's true that parts can break from any company. But it's pretty rare unless installation and/or improper usage is involved if the company actually engineers and tests its products. OTOH, Grantelli products are copies and are made of cheap materials and usually sourced out of overseas manufacturing shops where quality control is nil. Lots and lots and lots of Granatelli parts fail even when properly installed and used within their stated range of use. I've seen some of them personally, and read about many more. And they keep saying they make their stuff domestically, but people have unwrapped their newly arrived parts only to find them wrapped in Chinese newspapers! Spohn and other manufacturers know what he does, and yes it is professional and legally advisable for him not to comment. But I suggest anyone wavering on the issue of Granatelli parts failures and copying do a search for the terms "Granatelli" and "Maximum Motorsports" together. You will find plenty of evidence to show that Granatelli is not just another company who has had a few parts break, but instead systemically copies others' parts using substandard "engineering" and materials and probably does not rigorously test prototypes. In short, this PHB failed specifically because it's from Granatelli.

I did just that after I read BMmonteSS's comment. I searched for Granatelli and only then did I learn of Maximum Motorsports. I didnt even know they existed. I read a LOT of stuff on corral.net.

Well, I have a superior product on my car now and I am VERY happy. The Granatelli bar was LOUD AS HECK when it was on my buddy's 97 SS and it was loud on MY RS also. I was believing that ALL heim-jointed suspension pieces were loud. Dont get me wrong, the Spohn bar DOES INDEED transmit road noise into the car but the Granatelli bar... It sounded like the rear was about to FALL OUT OF THE CAR. When I first installed the Granatelli bar, I was afraid to drive the car because it was so damn loud. Mind you, I installed the Granatelli bar and the Global West LCA's at the same time. Again, I had accepted the fact that all heim joints were that loud. Now I know that I am sadly mistaken and was mislead. I cannot hear the LCA's at all. All the noise was coming from the Granatelli bar.

Lesson learned. In the future, I will buy ALL of my suspension pieces from Spohn. Imma need to buy a torque arm soon. And a K-member. And A-arms. And... Ummmm... My fiancee is gonna KILL me.

Mwahahahahahahahaha!

the loud noise was from worn out heim joints, that needed replacing, the spohn ones are quieter because the joints are new, but after so many miles they too will get louder and louder.

Oh... OK. That I can believe but this bar was LOUD when it was installed on my buddy's 97 Camaro SS when it was NEW!

I read somewhere that heim joints should be replaced after a few thousand miles of use. Not sure how true that is. my buddy has a LG Motorpsorts TA inhis 4th gen and the heim joint must have over 70K onit and let me tell you, it is LOUD when he drives. We have a new joint for it but it must be welded in and he doesnt have the time right now.

Really? Hmmm. I will have to check on that. Thanks!

i have all rod ends on my suspension parts and everything is tight and quiet. road bumps are harder/firmer but i have no noise. when i first installed my tq arm i had a lot of noise but after constant checking i noticed that one of the lock nuts to the rod end part was loose and i tightened that SOB and now everything is tight and quiet (no clunking/knocking). but ur problem does kinda scare me cause i havnt heard of the rod end just pulling out like that but then again like someone else said earlier if theres noise then a locknut must have been loose and constantly was knocking that rod end out to the point it stripped the inner threads.

It depends on the heim joint that is used. the metal on metal ones, yeah you do have to replace them every few thousand miles. On my iroc I have the qa1 teflon lined ones and they are still like new. The torqure arm one doesn't have any movement in it and I think (didn't have a working speedo for over a year) it has 30k or so on it. The rear lca's and phr are good to go as the have about 3k on them. Of course I have all spohn stuff. lol Even the coil over kit and a-arms.

Well I've been away the past week, but have the same one you do and got a chance to check mine tonite. The bar is aluminum, not steel, which might explain the threads pulling out. When I pull mine I'll weigh it...I'm curious as to the weight difference. Is the spohn one tubular steel?

Its aluminum? Whoa! I will DEFINATELY look at that thing again when I get home this evening. I couldve sworn I saw RUST!

I ordered my Spohn bar in Chrome-Moly. SUPER LIGHT! And yes, its tubular.

You might have, the rod end can rust.

Just because the PHB is AL doesn't mean it's junk, I've got a home-brew AL panhard bar on my race car and it works out fine. You just have to make sure you have enough thread engagement and the jam nuts are tight.

Although, that is Granatelli, so it is most likely trash.