Panhard bar on a stock leaf spring suspension

[My427stang]

Guys, would a panhard bar help me out? I am pretty nose heavy with the big block, and typically Mustang guys wont use a sway bar out back because of that inbalance. However, I am considering a panhard bar to keep the rear located during cornering.

I wonder though, how much does it limit suspension movement? Seems like the arc of the panhard bar would fight the vertical motion of the springs

[Mean 69]

A Panhard bar, or Watt's link, is very commonly used with the vintage race cars, and is pretty effective, especially if rubber type bushings are used on the leafs. You won't get any cross talk, or not appreciably, between the vertical motion of the leafs with regard to the PHB. There is a very slight lateral motion as a function of bump with the PHB that can be minimized with a suitably long bar (over 36" is probably fine for a limited amount of vertical travel, but make it as long as you can). In addition, the bar should be parallel to the ground at ride height, and most importantly, the roll center of the PHB should be as close as possible to the roll center height as determined by the leaf springs, or you will get some form of battle/bind = not desireable. The roll center height of a leaf setup, I am 95% certain, is defined by drawing a line through the front and rear leaf bushings (side view). Where this line intersects the axle, vertically, is your RRCH from the leaf standpoint.

As far as using the PHB for a tuning device to control roll, etc, it won't help. The only thing it will do in this application will to help limit lateral motion of the rear axle relative to the body. Now, if you had a link setup, you could use the PHB to tune for roll by changing the RRCH, but with leafs, this is not an option.

Maier racing offers one for early Mustangs that looks pretty nice, or it would be easy to fab your own.

Mark