Hi Steve,
The Panhard rod on the Healey is not too bad. It is setup parallel to
the axle & body, is fairly long, & suspension travel is limited. This
minimizes side to side change with suspension travel. It's not perfect
but a quick calc. shows about .140" axle location change from full
compression to full rebound. The tire sidewall flex is likely to be much
more than this.
Crossed rods wouldn't gain anything & would cause binding.
I don't think there is room in the Healey for a Watts linkage without
some major modifications.
Due to the shock link construction & leverages involved, I don't think
the shocks contribute anything. If they did, you would just have shock bind.
Dave Russell
BN2
Steve B. Gerow wrote:
> The Fiat 124 spider uses a similar panhard rod for lateral location and it's
> undoubtedly a better-handling car--stock-- than the Healey.
>
> If the part could have been left off the car and still reap the same
> benefit, the engineers would have left it off--non-existant parts don't add
> to the cost of the car and cause no service problems.
>
> Musings:
>
> BTW--I don't see how you could cross the panhard rods without trussing the
> axle so it would barely move.
>
> Wonder if anyone's build a Watt linkage for the Healey. With a Watt linkage
> (an arm from each side with a bellcrank in the middle) or center-bearing and
> upper and lower traction arms you'd have a car that might handle as well as
> an Alfa or a '50's Ferrari.
>
> I bet a the Cape setup of upper traction arms and an uprated panhard rod
> provides 95% of what you'd get with the setup above at a fraction of the
> cost.
>
> I wonder if the lever shocks and their links prevent any lateral movement...
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