your rear end will be way tighter and better behaved on road as well as track with a panhard rod.

id say it would be more a result of having sticky tyres on the back than having a larger diff

i'll be putting a panhard in my car one day when i get around to cutting the spare wheel well out of the way....just coz i can

I've gone for metal bushings holding the leaf shackles to the body and nolathane front eye bushings, the rear eye bushes are rubber, tramp rods as per datsun competition book and rear swaybar (which I think I will leave off for now), I figure that will do until I get it on the track and start playing with the thing properly.

Quote:

My reasoning is basically like wolki was saying, the diff is unsprung weight so is going to be much slower in reacting to changes than the little stick diff that was in there. So i reckon this would show up most on the quick left/rights. You say it would only be moving if the tyres were slipping, but what about going round bumpy corners, the tyres loading will be changing constantly, it doesn't have to move sideways much on a lowered car with wide wheels to rub. Plus who said I wanted the wheels to remained gripped to the road at all times :)
The fact that wolki reckons he's noticing it, kind of confirms my suspicions.

But anyway, The original point of the thread was to check out peoples setups. So far only shoey has shown me a pic, most people seem intent on trying to talk me out of it
Whats the worst that can happen i spend time fabricating something that no/little benefit? seems like a better alternative to me than getting it running and finished and finding out it needs one and i have to then weld/fabricate on my newly completed freshly painted running car.

Whitesedan, I'm also running aluminium bushes in the chassis and nolathanes for the leafs, I haven't added a swaybar but left the original mounts on the commodore diff incase I decide to add one later down the track Though I don't expect to at this stage the JTS Springs are already quite stiff.

So you reckon it'll be a pain in the ass to fit it all in there with the wheel well in too. I don't want to chop out my wheel well.
Once I get my diff back in there and mounted, i'll have a better idea of whether i can make it fit.

Hey Nick,if your dead set keen,then just do it,and make it up as you go.It's fairly obvious to me that you have thought it through as to what you want regards handling.

If you find it not to your liking you can always take it off,it's a bit of a chicken and an egg situation.

Personally i prefer to start(with a new car)softish,then develop it's handling as each outing has been run and assesed.This is as a result of many years ago building a race car with all the bells and whistles which took ages to do listening to all the experts only to find it did'nt work,then spending more time and money changing it all again and again.Its a clever engineer that gets it right first go on a production car,open wheelers thats different.

Assuming you have the fabrication skills,have a crack at it after a long hard look underneath,and keep us informed on progress.
Good Luck
Cheers

The weight of the diff should not have any effect on the amount of end float it has while cornering. it is all about the rigidity of your leaves, bushes and the cornering g's vs the weight of the car.

The heavy diff is unsprung mass so will detract from handling overall but the ultimate displacement won't be effected.

If its heavyer it will hav mor inerscer (however you spell it) witch will make it resist changeing direction, witch will hafto cause more endfloat however noticeable?!

Daveman's right. If you have tires worth anything, they can as easily handle a larger diff. A far bigger factor is the weight of the car and the suspension design. With the stock leaf spring suspension, there is nothing to keep the car body from moving sideways relative to the tires except the bushings of the spring mounts.

A panhard rod is the oldest, simplest method to tighten this up. For those interested, read about it here: wiki: Panhard Rod

But let's get back to the original request:Quote:



Panhard Rod

Hey dd, thanks for the pics, I had already looked at the panhard wiki, I spent half an hour or so hunting round on this site (there may be something else I have missed on wiki) but as I was saying it didn't really turn up much as far as setups on 1200's.
If what you and Dave say holds true i will probably be alright, as I have nolathane bushings in the leaves and alumnium bushes for the front shackle in the body (sedan front shackles unbolt from the body as opposed to welded to chassis like the other models)

Bert I entirely agree, I may very well not get it right, Its just much easier to add stuff now in the build process than once the car is completed. No one likes pulling apart there working car.

Like you say this may not work at all, but atleast i can remove the panhard easily if needed.
The biggest thing stopping me doing is actually how much room i have under, fabricating it isn't an issue.