Watts link or panhard bar?

[mazspeed]

Originally Posted by Maximum Bob

Not sure how the moderators are on this site, about telling people about a product that is not a sponsor yet, but here goes.

This company is helping us out on our 67CAMARO PT high school automotives project. The customer service is good, and Jim Fay is also a great guy to deal with.

That being said the web site is www.fays2.net, Ill try to attach a pic.

I bought and tried the fays link, great quality piece, but if you have an aluminum cover on your rearend with a stainless tank, it will not work. Not enough clearance. In fact if you have the aluminum cover with almost any tank it's not going to work. If you have a ford 9 it should work.

[Steve1968LS2]

Originally Posted by mazspeed

I bought and tried the fays link, great quality piece, but if you have an aluminum cover on your rearend with a stainless tank, it will not work. Not enough clearance. In fact if you have the aluminum cover with almost any tank it's not going to work. If you have a ford 9 it should work.

That's a shame, he makes some nice stuff and he's a great guy.. and a racer.

Did he say if he was gonna try to work around it?

[Silver69Camaro]

Originally Posted by philofab

It's easier to get a low roll center with a panhard but it's design causes the rear end to move in an arc through it's travel. The actual side to side movement is at most a half inch with a fair bit of travel. I've heard a few really good drivers can feel the side movement when driving hard but I've never been able to feel it.

That's an extreme amount of lateral movement, and would be caused by a very short bar.

For example, a 30" panhard bar will exhibit about .070" of lateral movement under a 2" bump. .070"!! It will be more with bushing deflection, but that can be solved with heims. Who here really needs to worry about .070"?

[MarkM66]

Herb Adams seems to think a Panhard bar works just as well. I'd believe that, .

[Marcus SC&C]

Typical factory Panhard bar= Fair
Well designed panhard bar= Good
Typical factory watts linkage= A little better than fair
Well designed watts linkage= Very Good

Mark SC&C

[Silver69Camaro]

Originally Posted by Marcus SC&C

Typical factory Panhard bar= Fair
Well designed panhard bar= Good
Typical factory watts linkage= A little better than fair
Well designed watts linkage= Very Good

Mark SC&C

That pretty much sums it up.

[philofab]

Silver69Camaro: I was to lazy to do the math on the side to side movement so I just guessed... I knew it wasn't very much. Anyone know if Lateral Dynamics will sell their billet watts link by itself without the rest of the kit? For some reason they dont make a kit for Ramblers...

[Maximum Bob]

Originally Posted by Steve1968LS2

That's a shame, he makes some nice stuff and he's a great guy.. and a racer.

Did he say if he was gonna try to work around it?

Steve,

we just started working with Jim, and yes very nice guy with a long racing background.

However, I think his design started with the Mustangs, so the link lends itself more to a 9'', which we are running.

I know he would like to see more Camaro guys looking at his product, a re-design for an after market tank and rear end cover would surley have to constitute a market for it.

But you never know, it may be an easy change.

[Maximum Bob]

Alert....

just spoke with Jim about Mazspeed's situation and he agreed, but did say it should fit with an aluminum cover.

He is going to send some pics over and I wll post them up.

As far as a re-design....Im thinking he would have to get three or four guys with the same problem or interest....tank/cover...

You would have to call him though.

[Maximum Bob]

OK here are some pics of a 69 Camaro with a Moiser rear end cover and the Fays2 Watss link installed.

I dont know whose car this is.....it is from Canada though.