[PWR 051]

The adjustable panhard rod is a must with any lowered Commodore
It re centralises the differential after a car is lowered and is commonly used in a car to prevent guard rub on the tyres...


Heres how I made mine
VB-VP non IRS have pretty much all the same type of Panhard Rod,so this will cover these models
If your exhaust is bigger than 2.5" you may need to put a kink in the bar to make it fit past the exhaust

What You will need
A panhard Rod to suit your car
2 16mm left hand thread nuts
2 right hand thread nuts
150mmx30mm 4140 high tensile solid steel shaft
Welder..Preferbaly TIG
A Lathe..Word of warning.the lathe is a very dangerous piece of machinery..only use if you have been trained in the use of one and are confident in what you are doing..not doing so could result in serious injury or fatality
Milling Machine
Anti seaze
Two new bushes

Firstly Started with a standard panhard rod,could be an idea to get a spare one from a wreckers or somewhere, if your not real confident and don't wanna ruin the perfectly good one in your car.(notice mine already has a nolathane bush in it..the only one i found on the car before i upgraded my bushes)


Secondly measure 90mm from one end(you decide if you want your adjusting nut on the left or right hand side of the car) of where the pipe is welded to the bush retainer..then cut the rod here at the 90mm mark,so that your panhard rod is now in two pieces...I put mine in a lathe and used a parting off tool to cut it in two and then faced the cut surfaces up so they were burr free and square..if you dont have a lathe a file will clean and square the cut edges up


Now get your two 16mm nuts,making sure one is left hand and one is right hand thread..
Now machine atleast half the length of each nuts down to 0.50mm smaller in diametre than the internal diametre of the panhard rod...once this is done weld the nuts into the ends of the panhard rod,making sure they are square..I used a TIG welder to weld the nuts in...


Now this next bit you can either make your self or buy..
I started with a piece of 30mm 4140 high tensile steel shaft 150mm long
In a lathe machine the diametre of the two ends down to 16mm and 50mm in length

Now set the thread pitch up on the lathes gears and cut a right hand 16mm thread on one side you have machined down and a 16mm left hand thread on the other side of the high tensile shaft...
Take this shaft now with the two threads on each end and place in a milling machine and make the hex nut faces onto the remaining 50mm in the middle of the shaft.
Once this is done should look something like this


Now this part is optional
Remove the old bushes and replace them with either rubber factory ones or poly urethane after market ones..i recommend poly urethane while your at it,might aswell
Before replacing the bushes give the whole thing a coat of paint..


Once this is done make sure you give the threads a good coating of anti seaze paste,screw your lock nuts onto the thread and screw the whole thing together and attach to car



Now i havent put mine on the car yet..when i have i will continue this guide with fitment and alignment procedures

If you want any help or any questions about anything above feel free to pm me or post below

This post has been edited by PWR 051: 02 July 2006 - 02:31 PM

[dwaynE]

good work building that....
how's the strength compared to an off the shelf one? what about the fittament... my pedders one has a bend in it to clear the floor too
did the effort and the saving offset the cost enough to make it really that worthwhile???

[PWR 051]

well i made it at worked and got paid for it still..havent tested the strength.. and the bend is for bigger exhausts..doesnt affect my 2.5

[SSLS1]

looks like a bought one! but wouldn't you have to cut a section off the main part, to account for the extra length of the threaded part?

[PWR 051]

yeah i did..i think i missed that bit out..