Ridetech 4-Link Coil-Over Install

[JohnJ@RideTech]

Originally Posted by z71se

John, a swedged tubing panhard rod with heim joints on both end, and spacers on either side of the heim joints, cannot possibly come into contact with anything. Yes, the bar will rotate, just like a Cal-Tracs setup rotates as the suspension compresses and articulates. Spacers on either side of the heim joint prevent it from contacting any bracketry.

I've got the 4-link installed on my truck right now. But I couldn't help notice that I had to pry the panhard bar into place. Binding at rest will be multiplied several fold as the suspension articulates. It just seems to be like a bad design considering you are already using one of the "R-Joint" heim type joints on the passenger side.

Basically 100% of the solid rear axle panhard bar setups on the market today from BMR, Maximum Motorsports, and others use this dual heim joint swedged tube design. The added benefit of the swedged tube is that it allows you to center the rear axle with the truck/ car on the ground instead of removing the bar over and over to do so. Perhaps I'm beating a dead horse here and need to modify this new kit as I see fit.

I get what you are saying but our panhard bar is NOT straight like the one on the Mustang. (See photo below)
Because the bar is bent, obviously the weight of the bar is offset. Because of this, if you put a double heim on the bar it would rotate down towards the ground. In a situation where the roads were bumpy or rough..the bar would "flop" up and down THEN we would be on here talking about why we didnt put a bushing in it to cut down on rotation.
The panhard bars job is to keep the rear end housing located in the center of the truck. If you take it out, there is a chance that the frame and rear end would not be centered (especially when you remove all of the rear suspension to install a 4-link) So, its not uncommon that the panhard bar doesn't fall right back into place when you reinstall all of the suspension.
Our engineering team has designed the bar to re-center the rear end in the truck, they did the math to ensure that the bar length is correct. We made one end adjustable for small adjustments where needed. If the amount of adjustment that is built into the R-Joint wont get the rear centered, then you may have something else going on.
Hopefully this clarifies why we dont use double heim ends.