I installed an upper and lower panhard bar on my camaro. Now I see that on Spohns site they make note about how you can't use one and they don't sell it anymore. I'm curious if anyone else is running one or has any experience with them. I'm assuming that the problem can be the upper and lower panhard bars hitting.

 

I didn't even know spohn made upper reallocation one. I knew bmr did.

 

Well when I bought one of my camaros the story was that the owner before the guy i bought it from was working with Spohn on some things. The two PO's were friends and I was told some of the items were sent back and forth for fitment issues. Not sure if any of this is true but it is odd I have a Spohn upper panhard bar. The bar actually didn't fit from hole to hole so we had to take an inch out and reweld it. I might be able to dig up a pic of it when I get home.

 

are you sure it doesnt just have a spohn sticker on it? THe reason it didnt fit is because its made to mount to the lower most hole in the passenderside panhard mount, and utilizes brackets to lower the lower panhard bar below the factory mount.

BMR and UMI both sell the upper panhard, but its a relocated setup. It offers better clearance for exhaust, but it also lowers the rear roll center of the car, about 2.5". This has a large impact on how the car handles, it will make the car understeer if proper supporting modifications are not performed at the same time.

as for a stock replacement upper bar, the only on out there is by grantanelli (spl?), and its a worthless POS.

 

I can not be sure it's a spohn piece. It looks identical in build as all the other pieces...sfcs, lcas, torque arm, tranny mount, panhard, wonder bar, a-arms and k member. I could see it actually fitting in the lower mount (before we cut it). Hmmm...it'll probably always be a mystery.

 

problem with what you did, is the factory upper panhard is c shaped, so the lower panhard will sit inside the upper when the suspension compresses. If you replace it with a piece of round tube, the two bars will collide and possible cause failure or a major upsetting of the rear, resulting is a potential loss of control

 

The upper bar is not straight. It does have a bend in it. I'm going to check it out for clearences.

 

thats not what i meant, over on the passengerside of the car, where the two bars are bolted to the chassis, right at that point they will bind unless the upper bar in shaped in a manner that will allow the lower bar to rise physically into it. Thats why you cant box the stock upper bar at that point, because the lower has to be able to fit up intot he bar.

happen to have any pics of this piece you have?

 

I'm out of town right now. What harm would it be to make a bracket to lower the lower bar an inch or so?

 

after doing that, you may notice the car understeering, the front end pushing through a turn. You can compensate by using a lighter rate front spring, a heavier rear spring, or a heavier rear sway bar, or a combo of the above.

 

Can that be influenced at all with front sway bar sizes?

 

a smaller front bar perhaps. you may end up with too much body roll though