what is the best way to go about adjusting the lower control arms and panhead bar? i know that the lca's have something to do with the pinion angle, so what degree would i ideally want there?

 

with aftermarket adjustable control arms and panhard bar, stock ones have no adjustment

the panhard just moves the axle from side to side, to center it after you modified the ride height. As for the control arms, if you lengthen them, you lower the pinion, shorten them, you raise the pinion. I think the proper angle is - 2 or 3 degrees, but i does vary based on application

 

what is the best way to determine pinion angle?

 

Experiment to see what the car likes.

 

On a third gen the lower control arms will NOT adjust pinion angle. This is set by the torque arm. Adjustabl lower control arms only allow you to center the wheel in the wheel well and to square the rear end to the car, both of these should not need to be adjusted unless the car has been hit. In my mind adj. lower control arms are a waste of money and are weaker and heavier than stock.

 

you are right , i cant believe i didnt catch that, now i feel like a tool

 

Yeah, but a good set of adjustable LCA's has a poly busing on one end, and a rod end on the other. I believe it has been discussed somewhere, that if you put the poly bushing on the body end, and the adjustable rod-end on the axle end, then this resolves the issue of binding during the corners that one would experience with 2 poly bushings.

What I plan on doing if I ever get adjustable LCA's is:

-Take off the stock control arms
-Set them on the ground with bolts facing up through the bushings
-Adjust the new LCA's so that they slide right onto the bolts
-Put the new LCA's on the car, they should now be stock length

 

thats cool, though most aftermarket arms will come already set to the factory length.

and what does all this have to do with the pinion angle question?