Hi there...

I am in the middle of a rear end upgrade. Acutally I have lowered my rear axle and changed gears, differential, sand blasted the rear axle and got it painted with fresh paint.

I have also a new rear sway bar from spohn and Eibach lowering springs and KYB adjustable shocks.

I have just got a shipment from Spohn with poly bushings.
Poly bushings to everything.

I disassembled the LCA's on my car and the panhard bar, and I must say:
what a weak construction??..I can actually twist them myself with my bare hands...

Anyway. I am working at a steel factory so I have access to all kinds of steel and welding machines. I have also access to lathe's and stuff so machining work is no problemo for me.

What I am trying to ask here is what is the best mod I can do to my stock panhard bar and LCA's???

I am gonna buy new tubular ones in the future but since I have now ordered all of those poly bushings I don't wanna waste them already.

I also have welded on some lowering brackets to the LCA's since I have lowered my car...

So any suggestions appreciated here..Making new tubular ones?..Or should I just "beef" up the stock ones until I get tubular ones from Spohn or UMI etc.etc...

Like I said. I have access to a lot of steel. Pipes, rectangular steel boxes, flat steels +++....

Thanks..

 

Just because LCAs are not very rigid in torsion doesn't mean much until you're about to pull the left front tire on launch. That's because under most any other condition, LCAs are not loaded that way. Not in torsion (twisting) or bending. PHBs almost can't be loaded in torsion unless an LCA or the torque arm completely fails and the axle wraps under/over whatever is left.

As a fair analogy for using the wrong direction to estimate the strength of something, you wouldn't try to gauge how strong a rope was by trying to push something with it.

You can gain a small amount of PHB rigidity without introducing too many 'downsides' by boxing it. It's already more than rigid enough and strong enough in its tension direction (think right turns here), but a little less so in its compression direction where it'll try to bend/elastically buckle out of straight if you can load it up enough (tire grip limits probably come first, but sliding into a curb sideways with the left rear tire could easily be enough).

I'd want to make sure that crud and moisture that you can't see would either wash out readily (hence the open OE design) or can't get inside in the first place.


Boxing LCAs is something that might become necessary with big torque and sticky launch grip, where the car pulls the front end and rolls over to the right a lot from the engine torque reaction. But since doing this (particularly in conjunction with most poly bushings) will tend to make a daily driver tailhappy in the corners it's really only recommended for moderately serious drag strip use where you really won't ever corner the car very hard (or can't because of skinnies up front).


There are a couple of mods that you can do to the poly LCA bushings to make them more "cornering-friendly", although doing so probably comes at some cost in bushing life. Then again, poly bushings should probably be considered "wear parts" and subject to occasional replacement anyway.


Norm

 

Install the poly bushings they will make a big difference and if you have the time you can do something like this.

 

That's what I am talking about Tony..Thanks for that reply...I was thinking of adding some steel to the stock components to make them "stronger" or stiffer if that is a more commond word to use...

I have also made a drawing and found material to make brand new ones out of steel. I was thinking of making boxed LCA's with tubes on the end for the poly bushings. The same as spohn have...

As for the panhard bar I was thinking of using some kind of tubing and weld on some tube ends with threads so I can adjust it...

I am not sure what to choose. I know it will take a little bit of time to make new ones compared to just increase the strenght of the stock ones.
And I also wonder if it is worth the time..

 

I boxed my stock rear control arms in and it made a big difference. Before, if I floored it from a roll around 20 mph it would spin and I had real bad wheel hop. After boxing them in, the wheel hop is all gone. I just used 1/8" plate all the way down the arm from one tip to the other. I still want good aftermarket ones, but these will work for now.