Panhard Bar "Do It Yourself"

[Tom Walker]

There is a deal of discussion re the benefits or other wise of Panhard Bars and Sway Bars. My brother found his Model A would dart sideways on a rough road. (Theres plenty round here!). Most folk seem to come down on front sway, rear Panhard. My bro wanted to try front Panhard, his theory is the front axle sideways movement gives the worst effect.

This is his solution. This uses Model A track rod, shortened to suit, complete with at least one adjustable end. 2 weld-in track rod balls. Piece of 3/8" or 10mm mild steel plate. A block of steel roughly 1"x 1.5" x 3", drilled and tapped 2 holes 3/8 x 16. Also drilled in the centre for the weld-in ball.

The steel block sits in the axle web, so needs hand fitting by grinding a big bevel on 2 of the long adjacent shoulders. Just to make it snug.

A potential fault in the design is that a PB should be as long as possible, and would normally have a mounting bracket on one chassis side, with the axle mount as far over the other side as possible. He didnt want to use a chassis bracket, it would have to be too big and ugly. It turns out this design is very discreet, and it works absolutely fine.

When cutting the steel plate for the piece that "drops" the ball from the spring plate, just ensure that the ball ends up as close to the centre of the axle (up and down), as you can.

For the purposes of carrying out this job, the spring bracket can simply be removed from the spring, just dont drive off in the meantime!

It works perfectly, is almost invisible, and has completely got rid of the death lunges!

cheers, Tom.