Adjustable Panhard Bar recommendation- 2014 GT

[Norm Peterson]

Be glad that at least you’re still able to manage the work, even if slower. There hasn’t been any quick recoveries for me in years. It seems the Golden-Years actually happened when young.

These are the worn-out & tarnished-brittle years for me.

I find I do a lot more thinking, which adds to the time required. Things like "how can I do this that will make it easier for me (or even possible)?". Getting a bigger torque wrench than strictly necessary to tighten brake caliper bracket fasteners down to 80 ft*lbs or more while potentially having to lay on my back was this week's little lesson (brake job on the WRX specifically for improved stopping power), and I'll be carrying that little bit of knowledge over to the Mustang's current task.



Seems the old saw about "working smarter, not harder" was never as clear in years past as it is now.


Norm

 

[Norm Peterson]

Well, it looks like there will be some bushing shaving going on, and probably a washer shim or two at least at the chassis-side bracket.

I did spend a little time thinking about the easiest way to check the sleeve to bracket gaps while everything was loosened or off, and it turned out that I could reach both the axle and chassis brackets from outside the car while only having to kneel on the creeper.


Norm

 

[xeninworx]

If I didn’t look at this thread I would have not noticed my own wheels not being centred. Not by much though. Suspension is stock with factory wheels.

 

[Pentalab]

If I didn’t look at this thread I would have not noticed my own wheels not being centered. Not by much though. Suspension is stock with factory wheels.

Every 05-12 GT I have seen at car shows has the drivers side rear poking out too much...and that's before any lowering takes place at the back end. It just get's worse when the rear is lowered. And it's really blatantly obvious when wider rear tires are used.

 

[Norm Peterson]

I've never noticed that on my car. Then again, my car is sitting at OE ride height in these pictures and was something of an outlier in some other aspect of suspension.

These are the best available pictures. 265/40-18 tires on 18x9.5 ET+45 GT500 wheels. My eyes can't see any difference.







Norm

 

[xeninworx]

Every 05-12 GT I have seen at car shows has the drivers side rear poking out too much...and that's before any lowering takes place at the back end. It just get's worse when the rear is lowered. And it's really blatantly obvious when wider rear tires are used.

Honestly it’s not even that much. Maybe 1/4” difference, maybe less. Not something I’m gonna worry about. Most people wouldn’t be able to tell. Once I get wider rims I’ll get an adjustable PHB.

 

[Pentalab]

Honestly it’s not even that much. Maybe 1/4” difference, maybe less. Not something I’m gonna worry about. Most people wouldn’t be able to tell. Once I get wider rims I’ll get an adjustable PHB.

My 2010 was out exactly 3/8"....before lowering. I took note of that when at car shows. The trick is to close one eye and line up the fender wells so they blend into one...eliminate the parallax....then glance down and take note of the ..'poke' on the driver's side. Same deal when taking pix, the parallax has to be eliminated 1st..b4 taking pix.

 

[GlassTop09]

I actually measured mine before I removed the OEM PHB just to see where it was.....came out to be exactly 1\8" out towards the driver's side....sitting at OEM ride height (where it still sits today).

I would consider my car's unibody as being a unicorn or a 1 off as production line QA\QC tolerance percentages go.

 

[xeninworx]

My 2010 was out exactly 3/8"....before lowering. I took note of that when at car shows. The trick is to close one eye and line up the fender wells so they blend into one...eliminate the parallax....then glance down and take note of the ..'poke' on the driver's side. Same deal when taking pix, the parallax has to be eliminated 1st..b4 taking pix.

Mines close to 1/8” looking at it again. It’s very minimal. When I put my winter wheels on I’ll look again. My winters are 18x8 35 offset so they stick out a little further than the stock 18s.

 

[Juice]

The wider tire you go, the more noticable this becomes. You dont notice this with stock wheels and tires.

 

[Chuck vmp]

I just installed phb and there's alot of noise I did use poly bushings help

 

[dark steed]

I just installed phb and there's alot of noise I did use poly bushings help

Did you grease them?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Norm Peterson]

The Ford Performance adjustable PHB ends measure 1.50" wide. The flanges on the supplied bushings are 0.20" (each) for a total width of 1.90". The supplied inner sleeves measure 1.85". For reference I measured about 1.88" for the OE PHB "sleeves", and the FP bar ends with bushings was a substantial interference fit.

Basically this puts the FP's polyurethane bushing flanges in compression rather than the sleeves. Polyurethane will gradually cold-flow, which would reduce the effective bolt clamp load.

So I ground the faces of one set of bushings (I ordered an extra set of bushings/sleeves) down to a few hundredths below 1.85" as installed. I may or may not need to do any shimming between the sleeves and the bracket sides to ensure that none of the bolt load is being wasted in bending the bracket sides down from about 1.88" to 1.85".


I'm also not a fan of on-car adjustability for suspension links. There is the possibility that loosening of the jam nuts over time could allow the carefully set length adjustment to 'drift'. So I Locktite'd the adjuster to the long piece with the red stuff. Yes, this limits adjustments to full-turn increments, but with a thread pitch of 16/inch I'm not worried about being off by even one whole thread. I'll never see a sixteenth inch "error", and I doubt I'll ever be able to feel any difference in the corners. Worst case, it might cost me a couple of thin wheel spacers, which I'm going to need anyway if I go with 295 or wider tires on those 11" wide wheels.

Shown with the shim that I may or may not need.




Norm