Pan Hard Bar

I recently purchased a pan hard bar, upper and lower control arms and the lower relocation brackets (anti hop kit). Today I started the installation and got everything in except the UCA. I don't have a 47mm Torx and neither does the local NAPA.

Anyway, my minor issue is regarding the grease nipples on the pan hard bar. I installed the unit as instructed with the adjustable end on the axle, but when I went to grease it I was unable to access the grease nipple. I had to unbolt the passenger side of the bar and swing it down in order to angle the grease fitting so I could grease it. I realize it's only a 'one pump per year' deal but perhaps you might want to have the engineering department actually stick one on a car and try it out.



The good news is that everything seems a lot more solid back there now and I'm looking forward to another new best ETA tomorrow night at the track. I'm launching fairly well and this should shave a tenth off my 60' I hope.

Also, I your LCA instructions never mentioned it and I couldn't see the pictures well enough to figure it out, but which way does the offset on the LCAs face? The only instruction is to face the grease fittings toward the ground, but nothing about identifying which arm goes on which side.

This would save you some trouble,

http://www.amazon.com/Thexton-418-Right-Grease-Coupler/dp/B0002SR6XO

Who made your panhard? Looks like UMI. Some guys had to reverse the panhard. Mine had an angled zert, which is easily changed.

skwerl said:

Also, I your LCA instructions never mentioned it and I couldn't see the pictures well enough to figure it out, but which way does the offset on the LCAs face? The only instruction is to face the grease fittings toward the ground, but nothing about identifying which arm goes on which side.

Click to expand...

Sorry about that, I never realized it wasn't in there. The off set faces in and I also pasted a picture below that might help you. The picture below shows the passenger side of the car.

http://www.umiperformance.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=12_185&products_id=320

I hope this helps,
Ryan

Whew, I guessed right!

Hey skwerl I see you have the koni yellow right? How do you like them?

The Konis are awesome! They eliminated the car's tendency to kick the ass end out on turns with less than perfect traction (turning at intersections) which I found scary and dangerous. With the stock shocks I almost had to coast through turns. I also love the adjustability going from street to track.

Back on the topic of the LCA's and anti-hop kit, I didn't improve on my 60' times but my trap speed increased (might have been the race gas). In fact I was spinning worse than ever off the line. I am on stock springs and don't have any intentions of lowering the car so I put the lower control arms in the upper hole on the brackets. The back of the arms are slightly lower than the front. Should I go to the lower hole even if the car isn't lowered?

Yeah I can't decide to go koni str or yellows.... I also wish I could ride in a car with konis vs stock to feel the difference.

My goal/idea is koni yellow with steeda ultra lights. Currently on stock brembo package and the car bucks a lot and dives hard in braking as well in acceleration.

skwerl said:

The back of the arms are slightly lower than the front. Should I go to the lower hole even if the car isn't lowered?

Click to expand...

What is your tire pressure?

I am not lowered and I run on the middle hole of my relocation brackets... FYI

skwerl said:

Back on the topic of the LCA's and anti-hop kit, I didn't improve on my 60' times but my trap speed increased (might have been the race gas). In fact I was spinning worse than ever off the line. I am on stock springs and don't have any intentions of lowering the car so I put the lower control arms in the upper hole on the brackets. The back of the arms are slightly lower than the front. Should I go to the lower hole even if the car isn't lowered?

Click to expand...

They should be level or the back slightly higher than the front.

fdjizm said:

back slightly higher than the front.

Click to expand...

Not always true.

Feel free to add, just stating my opinion on my research

Waiting to see what his tire pressure is. Can't fix one thing if other things are messed up and Brian has a history of running high tire pressure.

About the LCA's though, you have to find the happy medium between the down force they will provide and the weight transfere at launch.

Though in most applications you are correct.

The angle of the control arm will depend on what the vehicle is used for. For high handling applications you want the control arm as parallel to the ground as possible. On a low to mild powered car looking for traction we recommend the rear end mounting point to be lower than the front, you never want this to be higher at any point really. A street car most likely won't feel any negative effects having the control arm in the lowest hole.

Every car will react a little different. But for these cases I say try the lowest hole and 60' times will most likely decrease.

I hope this helps,
Ryan

Bruce, I'm running 15-16 lbs. My best 60' was at 17 lbs air pressure and stock LCA's, I turned a 1.73. Last Friday with the new LCA's my 60' times were 1.921, 1.832 and 1.810. I used to be able to just dump the clutch at 5K but with the new LCA's it seems I'm going to have to feather it a bit. I'll try a couple more times and if next week's 60' times don't improve then I'll put the LCA's back in the stock location again and try it there.

I dropped my air pressure down to 12 before I could hook. I'd try that too.

Also ET Street's love heat!!! Get a good john force burn out. I mean smoke them things up. Once you got a good smoke screen going let off the brake and pull the burn out to the line. If it hooks good and sounds sticky then you know you have done what you need to do. But again, that's only going to help with the right tire pressure.

Stock ride height, I would use the stock location. I wouldn't have recommended you bought the relocation brackets either at stock height.

Also you have to remember you have now tweaked your suspension so your Koni settings might have to be adjusted again also. How are you running those?

For the track I'm running the Konis full soft in the back, sometimes a half turn up. Fronts are jacked up to full hard because of my tiny front tires. Gotta keep the front bumper off the ground and keep it from scraping on the bumps. For street use I set both front and back about a half turn up from full soft.

At 15 lbs I had one of my rear tires spin inside the rim slightly about 3 weeks ago.

Here's what it looks like right now with the track tires on the car. The blue bolt would be the stock location for the LCA's.