We got the pan hard bar mocked up.Still need to put a slight bend in it.I cut off the ends of the old small rear cross member and opened up the holes to make the tabs for the frame mount.I'm gonna try and remove the cab this weekend and start working on cleaning up the chassis.
At ride height, the bar should be as close to parallel as possible with the rear housing. You could build a new housing plate to correct that rather than bending it. Also, what is the frame section thickness over the top od the housing, looks a bit thin to be carrying the load of the coilovers. JMHO & JFFT -
Yea I was looking at mounting the bar lower on the frame rail but the top link might hit so I put it on top.Is there a disadvantage of having a J bar verses straight. it wouldn.t be hard to modify the dif bracket but I have a great JD bender that would do the job in no time.The top coil over mount/crossmember is an over the counter part,it came with the truck all I did was fab the mounts on top with 1/8" plate. The original mounts were not going to work with the 14" coil overs that also came with the truck.I think that crossmember is close to 1/8"thk also and fully boxed.You can see the original bosses that go through the cross,I was thinking of buying 12" coil overs so I could use the original bosses but at 3 to 400 bucks a pair, wasn't in budget so I relocated the upper mount.I think I'm going to use the original boss to have another support bracket to the frame rail [pic].I'll weld to the frame and through bolt the original boss.Thanks for the input NCW,and let me know if I should NOT put a bend in that pan hard bar.
Whether the bar is straight or bent, you need to have the pivot points at the same height when the car is at ride height.
There is nothing wrong with bending the bar to make it clear something, as long as the bar is heavy enough and doesn't try to straighten out or buckle when cornering. It's probably more likely that you'll have a problem with one of the mounts deflecting rather than the bar trying to straighten or buckle. Of course the stiffest bar is a straight one.
One thing I notice is that your coilovers are quite close together. That reduces their stiffness when the body tries to roll. If you can't move them outboard, maybe consider a sway bar.
AH HA. Thanks Rick,that clears things up.The pivot points have to be at the same height. at ride height.I'll have to modify the diff bracket then and if I do that I won't have to bend the bar.You know guys I wanted a diagonal bar but I couldn't get it mounted at the back because the link bar is bolted to close to the axle housing and it was just not going to work so I said F*** IT and did it this way.I'm gonna have clearance issues with the bottom of the bed but I see other guys just raise the bed deck up.
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