Panhard Rod Pictures

[95TransAm]

A little while back, i made a post regarding my suspension, and a couple of you guys suggested it was my panhard rod. Well, when i replaced it i explained what my old one looked like, and many people said they wanted to see pictures. Well i brought it in to work today, and just took some pictures.

If you notice in the second picture, take a look at the bolts. They were definitely frozen in the bushings, and were attached to the sleeve as i was trying to get them out. Being that the night i took them out, i didn't have access to a torch to heat them up, i did what i had to do. I'll tell you right now, hacking off one of those bolt heads is absolutely horrible! I had to do that so i could have enough clearance to use a mallet to hit it through with a punch. 3 1/2 hours on one bolt is horrible, but i was determined to fix it up that night...and i definitely did .

[Jeff_in_Atl]

Holy crap! I think I'm going to order a BMR today.

[Squat13]

Now thats one nasty Panhard rod.

[Injuneer]

Never saw ne break like that. Was there any sort of impact involved.... hit a curb at high speed or something?

Glad you got it apart.

Now check your lower control arms. With the panhard rod broken, the body will have been trying to shift to the left and right over the axle assembly. The main thing resisting that movement, and not resisting very well, would have been the control arms. Make sure the overload did not twist the control arms, or tear the bushings.

[95TransAm]

Never saw ne break like that. Was there any sort of impact involved.... hit a curb at high speed or something?

Glad you got it apart.

No impact whatsoever, but i did notice that it broke the next day after i did a couple of donuts in the wet parking lot . But i don't think that would have anything to do with it breaking like that.

Thanx for the tip on the LCA's and bushings, it'll be the first thing i do when i get home. I hardly drove it though when i had my problems, so i'm hoping for the best .

Yeah, i too am glad i got it apart as well. It was a pain though, and it was at a price. As i was at about 30 minutes of pretty much straight hacking, a small piece of rusty metal fell behind my safety glasses and got caught in my eye . Couldn't get it out for the life of me. I finished the job, then drove myself to the emergency room at a little past midnight. Didn't get home 'til 6am

[Squat13]

Never saw ne break like that. Was there any sort of impact involved.... hit a curb at high speed or something?

Glad you got it apart.

Now check your lower control arms. With the panhard rod broken, the body will have been trying to shift to the left and right over the axle assembly. The main thing resisting that movement, and not resisting very well, would have been the control arms. Make sure the overload did not twist the control arms, or tear the bushings.

Your know I once snaped my Flexplate in my TA. It cracked from bolt hole to bolt hole where you bolt it to the crank and broke loss. The motor went from like 3000RPM to 6000 RPM in like 1/8 of a second. when I removed it I noticed that the plate was cracked from the bolt holes to the each on of the 6 2-inch holes. Do all flexplates break like that. I always thought they shattered.

[Injuneer]

Cracks propagating between the bolt holes can often be attributed to fatigue. I've seen repeated fatigue failures of a flexplate resulting from misalignment of the trans/bellhousing to the engine. But that's pretty rare. Perhaps the bolts were loose.

[Squat13]

I just think it was the 4 sets of tires I went thur in a year.

Got to love those 88$ Fuldas