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Old 08-09-2000, 10:47 AM   #7
Skankin
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Join Date: Dec 1998
Location: London, Ontario, Canada
Posts: 1,349
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Mixing products can be a bad thing (like you've found with the hotchis & panhard)... but sometimes one particular manufacturer doesn't have all the best ideas either... there are some band-aid solutions that just suck...

The MM lowers should be better than arms with urethane bushings at both ends... so they're a decent choice. The panhard has some lateral movement as it swings through it's arc (ie. as suspension is compressed), so this will produce some twisting/compression of the urethane bushing on the chassis side. They do claim to have 'special' urethane bushings, and I've never heard of any problems, so it'll probably be fine for street use.

A spherical joint on the chassis side would prevent any twisting of the torque boxes though. This is why I'd prefer the WMS, if I had the money.

I'm not sure why MM did it the other way around. Perhaps they thought the torque box was stronger than the axle mount (which may be true), but people seem to have more trouble with the tack welded torque boxes than they do with the axle attachments. If you haven't done so, I'd get someone to weld up your torques boxes just to be safe (I had mine done when I put my subframes in).

There are 4-link setups with spherical joints at both ends... mainly used by racers. This essentially eliminates any bind, but it would produce too much Noice, Vibration and Harshness for the average street driver.
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