Flipping radius arms (1 Viewer)

[OrangeCrusher]

I bought a 80 series that has this flipped radius arm mod. I didn't notice it when I bought and only realized it after that a few things are off:

• Most annoyingly that the brake lines were just dangling around in the wheelhouse, apparently bc the stock brake line supports on the axle don't work anymore with this mod and previous owners didn't put in the effort to properly secure them.
• The radius arms seemed to be in there somewhat crooked - see below (yes the bushings are also worn in this pic - those have been replaced since):

Now today I was replacing the bushings in the panhard bar, and while doing that I realized that the entire axle is shifted about 1 inch to the passenger side. This also at least partially explains the crooked location the left radius arm pictured above is in.

The reason appears to be that the axle side mount for the panhard bar is angled/displaced to the driver(left) side - see pic below. The mount has been extended upwards as well which I believe is good as it brings the rod into a more horizontal position and hence somewhat reduces the effect of the lift on the suspension geometry.

My first impulse was to pick grinder and welder and correct the angle and resulting 1 inch lateral shift. However before I do that I wanted to share here and see if there are any good reasons for the mount to be located as it is? I can think of two potential reasons:
1. Does moving the axle 1inch passenger improve the clearance for something else? I can't think of what though. To the contrary, the passenger side (right) tire is the most prone to rubbing in the outer right fender well (the rig is on 37s).
2. The upward extended mount being angled like this might make the mount itself more structurally solid? As the lateral forces acting from the panhard bar on the axle follow a more natural path?

Should I try to correct it by modifying the mount? Or alternatively get an adjustable panhard bar (can those be adjusted in the "shorter" direction?)

The main driving symptom I have is that when offroading, the right side tire very easily hits the right fender during negative suspension travel. Also the radius arm bushings don't last long at all. I'm driving this rig mostly offroad, and the frame side bushings got shot within 3k miles.

Keen to hear your thoughts!

 

[Broski]

@landtank or Slee Have a weld in adjustable panhard kit that would work.
As for the frame mounted bushing there something else at play, my 80 is a dedicated crawler and the bushing do wear faster then I like but not that fast.

 

[landtank]

@landtank or Slee Have a weld in adjustable panhard kit that would work.
As for the frame mounted bushing there something else at play, my 80 is a dedicated crawler and the bushing do wear faster then I like but not that fast.

My panhard DIY adjuster would work for you. It looks like the tilt is to prevent binding between the panhard and radius arm during flex when the passenger side is compressed.

You can check out the install drawing on my site, Typically you would cut out a 3" section and then weld in the joint to be back to stock length and then adjust it out to be longer because of the lift.

In your case you would need to calculate how far out the the axle is to the center add an additional inch and then add that to the 3" and cut that out of the bar.

After cutting the panhard I'd only tack the part back together and do some test fitting before burning it in.

 

[OrangeCrusher]

Thanks for your replies @Broski and @landtank ! You opened my eyes to the rather obvious fact that shortening the Panhard bar is a lot easier and more sensible fix than moving the mount.

I took the rig rock crawling and observed that the panhard bar is hitting the frame under full compression of the passenger side. Not very hard so far, but noticeable witness marks on the bar and the frame.
Hence I decided to shorten the bar on the axle mount side, as that will also increase upward clearance with the frame. I shortened it by just over 3/4".

I tapped a M8 in both sides and put a stud in to keep it together but somewhat flexible / adjustable. Then I put the bar into the rig and tacked it together. After that, took it out again and finished welding it up. I put a wet rag on the short end to save the bushing.

Cleaning up the weld and application of rattle can black later, it kind of looks like nothing ever happened!
Great side benefit of this effort is that the bar now fits in easily and the bushings are not loaded at rest. Before, there was always significant tension on the bushings and it was hard to get the bar in. This was because the axle mount is sligihtly misaligned with the frame mount. That's now corrected for.

I haven't driven it yet as the steering is now wildly out of adjustment and it was getting too late to get the pitman arm off and reset that (drag link was already at end of adjustment).