Panhard Bar

[Hammer Down]

I've been researching installing a panhard bar on my 85 Stang. The car is lowered with adjustable coilover and d+d lowers. Will the phb clear my diff cover? It's one with reinforcement. I believe trick flow.? Are they a bolt on item?(no welding)? Will they work with full exhaust? What do I do with the upper control arms? As of now the car is only driven to shows and grocery store but after going to an OTD it will be going to the track more often. On street tires I've come close to the ditch a couple of times so I'd like a safer more predictable handling car. Although once I went to nt01's for the track day the car handles MUCH better.

[wraithracing]

Which Panhard bar?

I believe any of them will be tight to the diff cover and I believe the Ford Racing normal one will interfere with Maximum Motorsports Panhard bar, but I would recommend discussing your concerns with the manufacturer your are considering. They should be able to verify for you.

You do not get rid of the upper control arms with Panhard bar only with the Torque Arm setup, but that requires a Panhard bar too. The Panhard bar will take over the side to side movement of the rear end which will allow the upper arms to work better since now they will only have to worry about the vertical motion of the rear axle.

[Hammer Down]

I was looking at the maximum motorsports setup. I just finished reading some info on their website and it cleared up most of my questions. Although another concern is brake fitment. I'm planning on the North race cars rear 5-lug cobra brake setup. Will the phb interfere with that disc brake setup. I'm planning on using the cobra anti- moan brackets. And, will my current sway bar work?

[erratic50]

Would be great if Jack could chime in with which covers work well with the MM panhard.

Ive had mine in the box on a shelf for a few years now. Been meaning to install it but having done one before I know they are a bit of a job to put in correctly.

[Hammer Down]

Yes. I read the install directions on the mm website. It's involved but looks looks doable. I'm gonna need another pair of jackstands, lol.

[wraithracing]

I was looking at the maximum motorsports setup. I just finished reading some info on their website and it cleared up most of my questions. Although another concern is brake fitment. I'm planning on the North race cars rear 5-lug cobra brake setup. Will the phb interfere with that disc brake setup. I'm planning on using the cobra anti- moan brackets. And, will my current sway bar work?

Plenty of guys running the same brake setup with a MM Panhard bar, so I don't believe there will be any issues. Same goes for your sway bar. Assuming it's a stock style bar, I can't see how there would be any issues. Even the MM adjustable rear sway bar works with the PHB.

[BMW Rider]

I was looking at the maximum motorsports setup. I just finished reading some info on their website and it cleared up most of my questions. Although another concern is brake fitment. I'm planning on the North race cars rear 5-lug cobra brake setup. Will the phb interfere with that disc brake setup. I'm planning on using the cobra anti- moan brackets. And, will my current sway bar work?

I have the MM Panhard bar and torque arm on mine with the North Race cars brakes. I do not have the anti moan brackets though, but they should fit.

[Jack Hidley]

There won't be any fitment problems with the brakes.

If your coilover kit uses a shock that has the stock sized (diameter and length) crush sleeve in the lower eyelet and the the eyelet is not larger than stock, they should work fine. If the crush sleeve is longer than stock, you will need to grind it. If the crush sleeve is shorter than stock, you MUST change it to a stock one or install shims. The MM PHB lower shock mount is very, very stiff and will not flex when you tighten the lower shock bolt. The bracket will be massively stressed, the crush sleeve will not be clamped, things will make noise and the bracket will crack.

If the OD of the eyelet is larger than stock, it may not fit in the bracket or may rub during body roll.

[Hammer Down]

QA1 coilover with strange adjustable shocks. Do these use the stock crush sleeve?

[cb84capri]

I don't think you can run tail pipes with the torque arm / panhard bar arrangement. Not factory style anyway. Two of my friends with track toy foxes have the MM setup and they both have their exhausts dumped after the mufflers. I can take a look at my friend's 91 today. I think there may be a version of the Steeda 5 link now that will let you use tailpipes, II perhaps? I don't know if you'd have to modify them to work though.

Cale

[erratic50]

My friends 86 that I helped put the MM panhard in runs a 2.5" Flowmaster catback kit with zero issues.

I don't see where the addition of a torque arm would have to cause problems but it certainly could if it's not done exactly right. I do know 3" would be a non starter, there just isn't room.

[Jack Hidley]

The Strange shock uses a stock geometry crush sleeve in it. If the QA1 coilover kit comes with a different shock bracket to mount the shock to the axle housing that might be a problem. Some drag racing oriented rear coilover kits come with a new rear lower shock mount which moves the shock rearwards. They do this because they use a 2.5" spring which is really long and they need the clearance between the spring and the axle housing.

The MM axle PHB mount locates the shock in the stock fore/aft location, so if your coilover kit moves the lower shock mount rearwards, it may not fit as the spring could hit the axle tube.

The MM PHB works with all 2.25" and 2.5" tailpipes that follow the factory routing. These are listed on the MM website. Some companies remove bends from the tailpipes in their manufacturing process as they are trying to save cost and/or don't have the correct tooling to place bends close enough together to follow the factory routing.