Cavero

Has anyone else who has the Steeda adjustable Panhard Rod noticed that it clunks when going over bumps and taking sharp turns? I got underneath the car and confirmed that it's the threaded rod end inside the tubular portion thats clunking. Anyone know how to fix this? The jam nuts are fully tightened already.

RadBOSS

What does fully tightened mean? If the threaded rod is moving, they are not tight. The bolts at each end torqued to specification. These are clmp connections, not shear so torque is very critical.

Cavero

Fully tightened to the point where I can't move the wrench anymore. I can try raising the car up for some more leverage, but I can't really see this requiring any more torque.

tom281

I've noticed that the rear-end is more noisy in general, but no specific clunking, bumping, grinding, etc. Good luck....

AFChief

I've found quite the opposite. Stock except for GMS LCAs clunked like mad at low speeds. The "train track" test made me wince. After the shocks, panhard, and sways, the car is much tighter. The TT test is not a worry. Looking at the torque specs, I would suggest using a lift or jack stands. These take some *** to get tight. Sorry, thats an aircraft maintenance industry term.....

WayneA

I was planning on getting the Steeda adjustable Panhard Rod. What are you doing to confirm the clunking? Here's what I found on the bar...
The question is, are the jam nuts loose or is the bar defective?

Twisted

I had the same problem with my Steeda panhard bar, the jam nuts would keep comming loose no matter what I did so I changed to the BMR and have had no problems so far.

Cavero

Yeah my father used to fix B-52's in the Air Force, I'm familiar with the terminology

what I was doing was getting underneath the car while it was still on the ground, then pulling the bar side to side. You could feel the threaded end clunking inside the bar. I just got underneath the car today, and found that the jam nut on the passenger side had actually completely loosened itself back up. So this time I wrenched it down completely (as in couldn't get it to even budge when I hit the wrench with a rubber mallet). The clunking stopped.

Here's a picture of what that bracket looks like and the clearance involved.
Attachment 30170
You can get at it, but just barely with an open ended wrench (1 1/8th) and with the help of some long-nose vice grips, you can actually loosen and tighten it. Then you would loosen the nut on the other side of the bar and just turn the bar (car still on the ground, bar still installed) and it shifts over the whole *** end of the car. Then just re-tighten and you should be good to go. Of course as you can see above, it's that one side that has the problem.

Yeah this time I tried Locktite, so I'll see if that does the trick.

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On another note, I saw this photo op when I had the car up in the air...

Attachment 30173

And while I was taking pictures I thought I'd get a shot of another Steeda issue I have. If you look at these pictures (one on the left is with the car in the air and the suspension unloaded, the one on the right is with the car on the ground), you'll see that with no weight on the suspension, the antiroll bar actually contacts the bracket to the right. When the car is on the ground, there is plenty of clearance. Has anyone else had a similar circumstance with their Steeda 7/8" Street Swaybar?
Attachment 30171 Attachment 30172

05BlackGT

Yep, same thing with the Eibach/FRPP bars.

Cavero

You mean the swaybars?

RadBOSS

Dude ... the rear sway bar is installed upside down.


[/QUOTE]

On another note, I saw this photo op when I had the car up in the air...

Attachment 30173

And while I was taking pictures I thought I'd get a shot of another Steeda issue I have. If you look at these pictures (one on the left is with the car in the air and the suspension unloaded, the one on the right is with the car on the ground), you'll see that with no weight on the suspension, the antiroll bar actually contacts the bracket to the right. When the car is on the ground, there is plenty of clearance. Has anyone else had a similar circumstance with their Steeda 7/8" Street Swaybar?
Attachment 30171 Attachment 30172[/QUOTE]

RadBOSS

From your photos posted, I can see the panhard bar has a wrenching flat on the driver side. Get a wrench on the jam nut on the passenger side, get another wrench on the bar wrenching flat on the other end and torque the heck out of it. Does Steeda have a spec? if you don't get these tight enough the threads will start to fret and will eventually pull out or the rod end thread will break ... take your choice.

Note: Locktight will not make up for an undertorqued bolt!!!!

If you are happy with the length, and you can't tighten it fully otherwise, take the bar off and do the thightening on the work bench, keeting in mind to keep the ends aligned.

05BlackGT

Yes, it does look upside down. The ends of the bar should turn upwards.

05BlackGT

Yes, the rear swaybar, but only when the rear end is in ful droop. Plenty of space with weight on wheels.

howarmat

Yeah i think its upside down to....my BMR bar is no where near as close as that.....I even have relocation brackets that have the cut out for the bar.

GRAYPNY

Hey Shaun, I would look for some 255/50-17's

*Planned Mods: 255/45 R17 tires

Cavero

[quote=RadBOSS;968030]Dude ... the rear sway bar is installed upside down.

Actually...yeah. I feel like a total dumba$$. My friend and I couldn't figure out why we were getting such crappy clearance with the suspension unloaded when we installed it. We tried everything but flipping the bar the other way around. About 20 min under the car and it's fixed now!

You can see there's much more clearance now
Attachment 30205

I just wish we had figured it out before this happened:

Attachment 30206

Now there's plenty even with the suspension hanging.

Yeah that's a typo. I originally had the size listed for the 18's I was planning on getting till my cash went into the suspension

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Oh yeah the pic on the left at the bottom is after I fixed the sway bar. The one on the right is beforehand, and you can tell it don't look right...

Cavero

No Steeda never listed a torque spec. And trust me, it's pretty **** tight now.

AFChief

On the other hand, those blue bars look bad ***!!!! Wish BMR did'em in blue!

RadBOSS

Like about 80 ft-lbs tight?

How come you did not do the front bar as well?