Spohn Panhard Bar - Tubular Adjustable with Del-Sphere Pivot Joint/Poly Combo - 1982-2002 GM F-Body
SPOHN PERFORMANCE
The panhard bar bushings on F-Body vehicles have a significant impact on your vehicle's ride, comfort, handling, acceleration, noise and vibration. When the vehicle leans (rolls) in a turn, one side of the chassis moves up relative to the rear axle and the other side moves down. The panhard bar must twist to allow for the axle to articulate, this causes the panhard bar bushings to bind. If this bind becomes excessive, it will raise the rear wheel rate and produce sudden and uncontrolled changes in handling such as snap oversteer.
The factory minimizes this suspension bind by using compliant rubber bushings. These soft bushings help accommodate the necessary motion of the panhard bar during body roll. However, the rubber bushings do not provide much in the way of positive lateral support. It is common to replace the stock rubber panhard bar bushings with polyurethane bushings to resolve the shortcomings of the factory's soft rubber bushings. The downside of polyurethane bushings is they prevent the necessary movement of the panhard bar during body roll, which in turn produces significant binding in the suspension when the vehicle is cornering. The polyurethane bushings also place high stresses on the panhard bar mounts on the vehicle. Polyurethane bushed panhard bars do not allow for rotation of the panhard bar during cornering because of the stiffness of the bushings.
Del-Sphere Pivot Joints: The Spohn Performance Del-Sphere pivot joint solves the shortcomings of the factory rubber and aftermarket polyurethane bushings. Our Del-Sphere pivot joint incorporates a spherical ball which is surrounded by delrin bushing cups. This combination allows the panhard bar to articulate like a spherical rod end (28 degrees of available rotation) during cornering but the spherical ball does not allow the bushing to deflect. Therefore the panhard bar remains completely bind free like a spherical rod end during cornering for predictable traction in the corners.
What is Delrin, and why did you choose to use it? Delrin is an acetal homopolymer made by DuPont. It is characterized as having an excellent combination of physical properties that make it suitable for numerous applications. With extremely low moisture absorption and a low coefficient of friction (self-lubricating), Delrin is uniquely tailored for wear applications in high humidity or moisture environments. Delrin will maintain constant physical properties under high moisture conditions and out-perform nylon or polyurethane under these conditions. Delrin has a 10,000 psi tensile strength and a 120 Rockwell Hardness rating making it ideal for our Del-Sphere application.
Build Specifications:
- 1.25" x .095" wall DOM tubing
- Stronger, yet lighter than stock
- TIG welded 4130N chrome moly threaded tube adapters
- 3/4" Del-Sphere Pivot Joint
- CNC machined through sleeve and zinc plated steel spacers keep Del-Sphere end perfectly centered inside of the vehicle mounting bracket
- Polyurethane bushing (fluted) with grease fitting for easy lubrication
- Right hand and left hand threaded male/female CNC machined 4140 chrome moly adjuster provides for easy on-car adjustment
- Ships to you jig set at OEM length
- Reuses OEM mounting hardware, no need to drill out your car's mounting brackets
- Available powder coated in your choice of the above colors