Chevette adjustable rear panhard rod
My 1981 Diesel Chevette's rear end is, for whatever reason, moved
over ¾" to the right, passenger side.
( Actually, the body is moved over of course ! ) There is no discernible reason for
this, no body damage, no chassis damage, etc. The car drives great, doesn't pull, and
doesn't "dog walk". But, the rear tire on the passenger side is close to even
with the fender well, and the drivers side tire is in about 2½" ! The easiest way I
could think of to fix this would be to install a panhard rod that has been shortened
¾". That would be the easiest. Instead, I decided to have an adjustable panhard rod
made up, because the Legend himself ( Alex Quirk ) reminded me that a panhard rear
suspension "moves" around. When you jack the car up, the rear end moves to the
left, and when you load the car up, the rear end moves to the right. I decided that by
installing an adjustable rod, I could move the body to wherever I needed to in the future.
You can clearly see the body moved over in this shot:
By installing this adjustable panhard rod:
Close up
..... I intend to be able to move the body to wherever I need it to be. By making this adjustable, any future spring changes can be compensated for.
If anyone is interested, the adjustable portion is from a Peugeot. It is the tie-rod assembly from the front suspension. I would imagine that any similar assembly can be substituted.
When it comes time to install the panhard rod on a Chevette, be advised that the left side ( drivers side ) mount will probably be very difficult to remove. The bar is mounted to a bracket welded to the body, and a bolt goes through the bracket, through a steel sleeve in the rubber bushing of the bar. The steel sleeve tends to seize the bolt, and it is very difficult to remove. The donor car ( my other '81 Chevette ) only gave up the bar after four men worked at if for about 30 minutes. The gas tank was removed for access to the bolt, and an air chisel finally forced the bolt out of the bracket. On the Diesel car, knowing that the bolt would be hard to remove going in, I removed the shock and spring ( for convenient access to use an air impact on the bolt ), and because I didn't want to "tear up" the bracket on this car, I carefully spread the bracket, and hacksawed the bolt inside the sleeve. ( This takes awhile ! ) Once the ends were sawed off, the panhard rod fell from the bracket. ( since the fuel tank is right next to this mounting bracket, I didn't want to use a torch, or risk even the Mighty Makita die grinder in case of an errant slip with the tools )
As shown on the car, you can see why Don moved the adjuster to the right side. This makes it easy to reach in and turn the sleeve. I installed the bar, then moved the car over the necessary ¾" by hand ! The sleeve was so easy to turn, I didn't need to put a tool on it. Don did a great job of assembling the part, and cleaning up the old threads on the Peugeot tie rod assembly.
I want to thank my lifelong good friend Don Bills for making this part for me. Don is an expert in everything, and can usually do anything.