GT_Rich
09-28-2024, 06:17 PM
As summer winds down and our race schedule eases up, I wanted to take a minute to update folks on this board about something I encountered this year. This was my second season racing the Coupe. Honestly, I am still sorting through spring, shock, and brake changes to really make this car perform, but I am getting there. Reason for this post is a panhard bar bracket failure I encountered in June.
For a 3 link suspension, the panhard bar transmits all lateral load. On the axle, the FFR supplied axle side bracket mounts to the lower control arm bracket on a Ford 8.8 housing. Ford's intent for this bracket was to carry fwd/aft load, not lateral. FFR's design puts the Ford welds in bending, which is not good.
I had a complete failure of the axle side bracket at an autocross event in June. When this happens, the rear is no longer located side to side, so it will go all the way to the unloaded side until something collides. In my case, the driveshaft collided with safety loop at about the same time the inside of tire was into the chassis. One of my rear shock shafts bent in the carnage of it all. Not fun to fix this when it happens.
I have some pics showing how I repaired it and how I gusseted it.
This repair really changed the handling of the car. Before this change, I battled a snap oversteer condition constantly. Many spring and shock changes trying to make it go away with no luck. Prior to this breaking, I had 360'd the car three times at the event I was running. Since this fix (knock on the proverbial wood here), I have over 100 autocross laps and a road course daywithout spinning the car. The oversteer traits are now "catchable". I truly believe this bracket has been flexing since day 1 for this car and that flexing nature was putting the rear suspension in a position that made oversteer difficult to control.
I contacted FFR and they say the weld from Ford was bad and that they have sold over 10,000 kits without this happening. However, since then, I've had two others reach out to tell me this also happened to them.
In my opinion, if you street drive your car or casually autocross it with true street tires (not extreme 200tw tires), you will have no problems. However, if you actually race and compete with your car on a regular basis with a good tire, this should be on your radar. I have a 2 post lift and inspect my car a lot, and I did not catch any signs of this failing, so be careful. The time and cost to brace up this bracket is nearly zero compared to the time and cost to fix a failure. And if this were to fail at speed on a road course, good Lord...
For what it's worth, mine failed using a budget 200tw tire, which is the tire I've been running since putting the kit together. I was running a parking lot autocross when it failed.
204566204567204568204569204570
For a 3 link suspension, the panhard bar transmits all lateral load. On the axle, the FFR supplied axle side bracket mounts to the lower control arm bracket on a Ford 8.8 housing. Ford's intent for this bracket was to carry fwd/aft load, not lateral. FFR's design puts the Ford welds in bending, which is not good.
I had a complete failure of the axle side bracket at an autocross event in June. When this happens, the rear is no longer located side to side, so it will go all the way to the unloaded side until something collides. In my case, the driveshaft collided with safety loop at about the same time the inside of tire was into the chassis. One of my rear shock shafts bent in the carnage of it all. Not fun to fix this when it happens.
I have some pics showing how I repaired it and how I gusseted it.
This repair really changed the handling of the car. Before this change, I battled a snap oversteer condition constantly. Many spring and shock changes trying to make it go away with no luck. Prior to this breaking, I had 360'd the car three times at the event I was running. Since this fix (knock on the proverbial wood here), I have over 100 autocross laps and a road course daywithout spinning the car. The oversteer traits are now "catchable". I truly believe this bracket has been flexing since day 1 for this car and that flexing nature was putting the rear suspension in a position that made oversteer difficult to control.
I contacted FFR and they say the weld from Ford was bad and that they have sold over 10,000 kits without this happening. However, since then, I've had two others reach out to tell me this also happened to them.
In my opinion, if you street drive your car or casually autocross it with true street tires (not extreme 200tw tires), you will have no problems. However, if you actually race and compete with your car on a regular basis with a good tire, this should be on your radar. I have a 2 post lift and inspect my car a lot, and I did not catch any signs of this failing, so be careful. The time and cost to brace up this bracket is nearly zero compared to the time and cost to fix a failure. And if this were to fail at speed on a road course, good Lord...
For what it's worth, mine failed using a budget 200tw tire, which is the tire I've been running since putting the kit together. I was running a parking lot autocross when it failed.
204566204567204568204569204570