Shortening my panard rod...
 

So I posted this on my local forum as I've made my panard rod adjustable:

And a local guy who does lots of this stuff posed the question of have I used a thick enough piece of threaded bar? It's 10mm thick.

What are folks opinions, if it snapped while driving it would cause no end of damage/issues an he's got me worried now!!

To add to my annoyance I've got it on now, centered the rear axle and guess what? Now both tyres scrub but only on big bumps. No lower for me then!! :(

Surely you need on end of the thread to be opposite thread to the Other????....Other wise you aint adjusting the LENGTH of the Bar only the Body position?....IE you need to Shorten the Bar to Go LOWER.....??...

Shortening my panard rod...
 

Correct if I had put two points of adjustment in. I've put one in so you simple take off the wheel end to adjust it, spin it a turn and replace. Then see how it sits.

Have no idea where I'd get opposite thread and it's not the kind of thing I'll adjust often enough to bother.

But do we think a 10mm threaded bar is thick enough?

M10 probably snap with any side loads tbh..... That or bend causing a misalignment...

Bambridge (Kev of KDR engineering) can do LH threads, he does them for steering adjusters.... that way you have the panard rod mounted and to adjust it you simply turn the adjuster bar (hex centre point) clockwise to shorten or anti-clockwise to lengthen the adjustment.

Shortening my panard rod...
 

What sort of thickness should I be going for? 14mm?

Tbh now it's the right length I'm tempted to weld a piece of metal back over it as a sleeve as I don't think I'll be adjusting it anymore.

Ignoring any increases in stiffness that you get with shells instead of solids, I think you've dropped the CSA of metal.

If the Panhard rod has a wall thickness of 3 mm and is about 30 mm in diameter, then you've got about (15+15+47) x 3 = 232 mm2. These values are guesses - it's been 10 years since I looked at one of these rods on my old 193 Avant - use measured values here instead of guesses.

I've just bought a slide rule off eBay, and I'm looking for problems to test it with! I reckon the following CSAs apply:
10 mm - 79 mm2
12 mm - 103 mm2
14 mm - 154 mm2
16 mm - 200 mm2
18 mm 255 mm2
20 mm - 314 mm2

So, welding a sleeve over your adjustment would be the safest option. Alternatively, beef it up with 20mm stud instead. Or what about getting the fattest tie rod you can find from a scrap yard and cutting out the adjustment bit - it will have the short middle section with the LH and RH thread on it and the matching LH and RH female bits, allowing adjustment in situ.

Paul

Shortening my panard rod...
 

Wow now that's the answer I wanted!

So to be as strong as stock it's 20mm or weld it back to a bar. I think I'll do the later!

Thanks so much for that! :)

was thinking of doing this too... have you tried motorsport suppliers to get an adjustable joint... will this mod help side to side location of the axle.. or will it alter some other part of the geometry as well... the wheels on my 90 seem to be slightly more to one side and the panhard rod has a slight curve/bend from an off road experience...;)

A pleasure! I've just discovered a little mark on the sliding cursor that makes it even easier to calculate areas. Wonderful things, slide rules!

Actually, without doing any calculations, the thought of an M10 rod that long doesn't really inspire confidence - I'm sure it would flex much more than the Audi Panhard rod.

Shortening my panard rod...
 

It will not mess with anything else mate really, just adjust the side to side location as you say, mine is now sitting lovelly and square! Gonna weld over the bar to strenthen it asap. Tbh it would be very hard to guess the amount to cut out, so this way I got it spot on.

Someone said if you drop the car 50mm you remove 50mm, not to be mean but this is wrong, in the end to square it up for a 50mm drop it was actually more like a 10mm removal.

Hope that helps!!