"Underneath", installment 19
One thing still undone was the Panhard rod. The rod itself was
cleaned up and powder coated, and I had bought new bushings, but that
was it. I went to the hardware store to replace the large adjusting nut
that goes at one end, but it wasn't readily available. The old one
looked good save a burr, so I bought a 5/8" 18tpi tap, and cleaned it up
and also the threads on the inside of the rod itself. Then I stuck on
the bushings and new nuts/bolts at each end.
The bracket was still attached to the frame by two bolts, so I
removed them; who knows how long ago it had pulled loose, but what
looked like the original bracket had been welded to a plate, holes
drilled in it, and the bolts went through to a second plate sandwiching
the frame between. Overall, it looked OK except a small crack on the
exposed "bottom" surface of the frame. When I removed the bracket and
looked behind it, WOW! Two big holes, perhaps 3/4" by 1-1/2" each, from
where the original bracket welds had ripped out some frame when it went.
Amazing how strong the car was to hold up with such big holes in the
frame. That'll need to be fixed as soon as I can get back on the road.
The bracket cleaned up fine and I repainted it. The next step
was to stick the rod in place, starting with the left (axle) side. It
went in, but I got another surprise. Sighting from the axle-side bracket
to the frame-side bracket, the intended placement of the rod came
awfully close to my finned aluminum diff cover -- and that's just while
sitting a static ride height. Trouble. So, I made some measurements. The
distance from the axle to the bump stops, thus my "jounce" travel (plus
some if/when the bump stops compress) was three inches. the rod was 29
inches long overall, and the distance from the axle-side bracket to the
center of the diff was 11 inches, so, I figured the ratio of axle
movement to the closure rate between the Panhard rod and the diff cover
was 2.64 to one. Then, I lowered the still-unconnected frame-side end of
the rod down, measuring until it hit the cover. Two inches, almost
exactly. Yeah, I had to do something. My choices were:
(a) hope I never used all of my suspension travel
(b) leave off the Panhard rod. I recall a few of you already do
that.
(c) re-install the factory steel diff cover. Ugh!
(d) modify the allot cover.
I chose (d), but it wasn't fun. I pulled off the cover and took
it into the shop. I planned on taking off the fins, from almost the very
'top' of the cover, down to almost the midpoint (I had made some marks
based on where the rod might hit), and take off _all_ of the 2 center
fins and a proportional amount of the side fins so that they stuck out
no further than the center of the diff cover w/out the fins.
I borrowed a carbide burr (thanks, Larry Paulick) for my
pneumatic mini die grinder, and attacked the fins. For the first 2
seconds, it worked great; then it clogged up with soft aluminum. Then I
tried a grinding stone, same problem. Then a hacksaw with one of those
abrasive-rod blades. No better, and super slow. I dug around in my tool
drawers, looking for something to remove the metal. I spied a really
large, coarse-cut file, and decided to try it. Yes! It cut, and didn't
clog much, and I had a file card (a wire brush, basically) for cleaning
it up periodically. Clamped to the benchtop, I started filing. 1-1/2
hours later, the fins were cut down as desired. However, my hands hurt
so bad I had to take the rest of the day off from working on the car, so
I haven't refitted the cover to see if it clears the rod. It should.
I will not, I gather, be able to have the locating point for the
Panhard rod, frame-side, lowered to get it level with the ground, as I
had first hoped; I just don't see the room. One alternative would be
some bizarre rod that goes around the cover, see page 152 of "How To
Make Your Car Handle".
BTW, I didn't check, although with both covers off I guess
filling them with water as a test would be easy enough, but should I
worry about increased interior volume of the alloy cover effectively
lowering the oil level? Or should I just add oil until it hits the
bottom of the fill hole?
Lawrence R. Wright, Purchasing Analyst
U S Office Products, Mid-Atlantic District
Formerly Andrews Office Products
larry.wright@usop.com (new)
Ph. 301.386.7923 Fx. 301.386.5333
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