So for the last couple years i've been battling a loose steering problem. This started when i went up to a 4" lift. Since I've had this problem i've replaced every bushing in the front end, steering box, tightened swivel preload, wheel bearing preload, steering dampener setups, rod ends etc. None of this was working and i was about to pour gas on my truck and throw a match at it.
Muskyman did a mod on his truck that i thought was pretty interesting. He cut the RHD panhard bracket off the housing and welded it on top of the LHD pahnard bracket. This raised up the mount to get the panhard angle to match the drag link angle as it would in a stock vehicle. When there are different angles between these two, you hit a bump and they are fighting each other giving you a weird bump steer. You will never completely eliminate bump steer in a lifted truck as the angles of both just become greater as you go higher. The only to fix this is to raise both mounts up. On a Land Rover this really isn't possible.
I'm leaving for Utah in 2 weeks so i decided to go for this mod. I couldn't use the RHD panhard bracket as i already cut it off to keep the panhard bolt from hitting it (my axle is a fair amount further forward from stock) so i bent one up out of 3/16 flat stock. I ended up raising the bolt hole up 1.5" from stock. This brought the panhard up enough to match the angle of the drag link.
When I welded on the sewer cap i needed the only option available to clear it which was Keith's at Rovertracks. His panhard has a bend in it to clear the sewer cap and is adjustable with heim joints on the ends. While i was never a huge fan of using the heim joints it was the only option without building one myself.
So the other day i made my own panhard bar out of 1.25 OD .320 wall DOM. I took a stock panhard and cut off the ends so that I could go back to bushings. I put a bend in the DOM and took several measurements to come up with the correct length and then notched the ends. Since this is the lift i'm sticking with on my truck i didn't see any need to make this panhard adjustable. With a set of bushings in i bolted the ends up in their mounts and tacked the panhard in place. Then i pulled out the bushings and TIG'd the ends.
One of the nice things about the heim joints is that Keith could make one panhard and it would fit any truck because of the flexibility of the joints. In my case the panhard brackets aren't parallel with each other because of the height of my pinion due to the corrected arms. So if you would lay my panhard on a bench, both bushings would not lay flat. I was a little concerned about this when i welded it up wondering if they would move a little. Thank god when i put it up to bolt it back in the bolts just slid right through. There is no bind in the bushings. Anybody with a lift and a stock panhard will have some bind. I'm sure you noticed this if you ever pulled the panhard down and tried to bolt it back in. You have to grab it and twist it to get that second bolt in.
Both Keith and Rovertym build great products and if they want to sell an adjustable panhard it's easiest to use heim joints. I haven't heard of any issues using these which is why this has been frustrating me so bad. Anyway it wasn't working on my truck. The weird bump steer I was getting is now completely gone and the truck is now tight as hell again. Now i don't have to light my truck on fire.
Here are some pics. Another thing i did was weld a super thick hardened washers on the bolt holes to eliminate any possible ovaling. The hole on the bottom has a 5/8" washer welded on to accommodate the heims that Keith was using at the time.
Pic 1
Pic 2
Pic 3
Muskyman did a mod on his truck that i thought was pretty interesting. He cut the RHD panhard bracket off the housing and welded it on top of the LHD pahnard bracket. This raised up the mount to get the panhard angle to match the drag link angle as it would in a stock vehicle. When there are different angles between these two, you hit a bump and they are fighting each other giving you a weird bump steer. You will never completely eliminate bump steer in a lifted truck as the angles of both just become greater as you go higher. The only to fix this is to raise both mounts up. On a Land Rover this really isn't possible.
I'm leaving for Utah in 2 weeks so i decided to go for this mod. I couldn't use the RHD panhard bracket as i already cut it off to keep the panhard bolt from hitting it (my axle is a fair amount further forward from stock) so i bent one up out of 3/16 flat stock. I ended up raising the bolt hole up 1.5" from stock. This brought the panhard up enough to match the angle of the drag link.
When I welded on the sewer cap i needed the only option available to clear it which was Keith's at Rovertracks. His panhard has a bend in it to clear the sewer cap and is adjustable with heim joints on the ends. While i was never a huge fan of using the heim joints it was the only option without building one myself.
So the other day i made my own panhard bar out of 1.25 OD .320 wall DOM. I took a stock panhard and cut off the ends so that I could go back to bushings. I put a bend in the DOM and took several measurements to come up with the correct length and then notched the ends. Since this is the lift i'm sticking with on my truck i didn't see any need to make this panhard adjustable. With a set of bushings in i bolted the ends up in their mounts and tacked the panhard in place. Then i pulled out the bushings and TIG'd the ends.
One of the nice things about the heim joints is that Keith could make one panhard and it would fit any truck because of the flexibility of the joints. In my case the panhard brackets aren't parallel with each other because of the height of my pinion due to the corrected arms. So if you would lay my panhard on a bench, both bushings would not lay flat. I was a little concerned about this when i welded it up wondering if they would move a little. Thank god when i put it up to bolt it back in the bolts just slid right through. There is no bind in the bushings. Anybody with a lift and a stock panhard will have some bind. I'm sure you noticed this if you ever pulled the panhard down and tried to bolt it back in. You have to grab it and twist it to get that second bolt in.
Both Keith and Rovertym build great products and if they want to sell an adjustable panhard it's easiest to use heim joints. I haven't heard of any issues using these which is why this has been frustrating me so bad. Anyway it wasn't working on my truck. The weird bump steer I was getting is now completely gone and the truck is now tight as hell again. Now i don't have to light my truck on fire.
Here are some pics. Another thing i did was weld a super thick hardened washers on the bolt holes to eliminate any possible ovaling. The hole on the bottom has a 5/8" washer welded on to accommodate the heims that Keith was using at the time.
Pic 1
Pic 2
Pic 3
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See how much work we could all get done if we weren't on here all the time?
