How does a Panhard Bar Work? 

You’ve completely spoiled us. We’re going to expect an illustration going forward. Excellent informational video, as always.

Great explanation Andy. The reason it changes the cornering characteristics is actually because it changes the rear roll centre of the car. The roll center is the point that the car pivots around when the body rolls. On a leaf sprung car like the mustang the roll centre is the centre of the line running through the axles. When you install a panhard bar the roll centre moves to the point where the panhard bar crosses the cars centre line. By the positioning of your bar you can see when the car is on it's wheels, how much you have raised or lowered the roll centre by the Panhard bar's position relative to the axle centre line. If you raise the rear roll centre the car will have sharper turn in but tend to oversteer, if you lower the roll center the car will lose some sharpness and tend to understeer. If you were racing the car you'd run a lower roll centre but compensate for that by going harder in rear spring rate which would improve the overall handling. Playing with this stuff is hugely enjoyable. If you haven't already, put your bar at the highest setting and go through your favourite corners and then swap to the lowest setting and try the same corners you will be amazed at the difference. Enjoy.

Thank you for the illustration and explanation. I think I will be upgrading my 67 now with this in the rear,

this is about the best. most simple explanation of a P-bar setup I have seen on RU-vid.

Awesome explanation, Andy. The drawing really helped for us more visually stimulated folks.

The illustrations were really helpful, to help understand how it works. Thanks.

The drawing was my favorite part, it was prefect. Loved the video.

What a great explanation ! For a green horn like me, it could not get better. Thanks for all the effort !

Great video Andy!

Excellent video, THANKS !!

That's a great drawing and explanation.

Excellent video and explanation as always Andy! I'm strongly considering doing this to my 70' convertible this winter. My front end is dialed in and is very responsive but my rear is all over the map when going around corners.

I run a Panhard rod on my 1923 Ford T hot rod as it has coil over shocks. A must for that car.....but this old man does not drive hard enough in his 66 Mustang for one. Thanks

I was impressed by the drawing and the paper cutout!

Nice explanation!

Damn, that was Great!!

Very good video, the paper cutouts are perfect. I have a factory 3 link with panhard bar on my 73 LTD. The bar isn't as long as yours and causes the rearend to move back and forth as the suspension moves up and down. I would like to modify it and make it longer.

well done.

Wish they made one for my mustang 2, Im probably just going to buy this kit and modify it, seems like a really nice setup and it looks really close to fitting the 74-78 mustangs.

Wow!

Thanks for taking the time to explain this 👍

Interesting, every car should have a pan hard bar.

Great review and visualizations! Makes me want one.. have you looked into the half bars that connect to the third member instead of the leaf?

This bar looks pretty cool! Awhile back, I watched you install a rear sway bar and I put that on my Christmas wish list for a project this winter. Now I see the panhard bar... hmm... my car is pretty much a daily driver around town mainly for my wife. I don't think I need to go as far as a panhard bar, bur I do think I would benefit from the rear sway bar (I've already installed a 1"front sway bar and noticed a huge difference). Your thoughts?

Thanks! I installed del-a-lum bushings from global west that is supposed to do the same thing. I haven’t tried them yet because I’m finishing restoration. Have you heard of them?

Thinking of installing a panhard bar on my 65 FB and like the Maier Racing one you installed. Did you use the adjustment feature of the bar to center your rear axle at all? If so, how did you do it?

Hey Andy what do you have for the rear end ? Gears ? Thanks like the vids. My dad and I have a 68 fastback we are working on just finished up our 347. Doing our homework on rear ends now. Thanks for your time.

Does you Mustang have a stock steering gear box?

less is more, excellent explanation

🐎🔧👊🙌🇺🇸💪

My opinion is, what old Shelby Mustangs did not have I don't need on my car. I have Shelby traction bars on my '66 and I think it is enough. Sure you can add panhard bar but if you cruise low speed 95% of time with your Mustang it is not necessary (like I do). It is also quite expensive upgrade with labor. On track use this could bring some benefits. Just my thoughts... 🙂😉

Panhards suck. Shifting the centerline with every oscillation. Especially compromising with semi elliptical leaf springs. Watts link is the only way to go with leafsprings