With our short Panhard bar removed, you can see the motion the rear suspension takes during movement. This can alter the effectiveness of your adjustable shocks and suspension during launch.
When we were on the topic of fasteners, Perry discussed the use of National Aerospace Standard (NAS) Bolts or high-quality grade-8 fasteners.
“One of the most critical factors is the use of bolts that have a shoulder across the entire width between your housing and chassis brackets,” he explains. “If you allow a bolt’s thread within that shear area, your bolt is only going to be as strong as the inside diameter of the thread.”
Upon close inspection, I shuddered when I realized the current bolts and nuts used were not grade-8 and not even grade-5 fasteners. Most race chassis suppliers offer bolt kits made of high-strength fasteners. So, along with our new rod ends and diagonal link, we acquired all new grade-8 hardware for our reassembly.
With our ladder bars apart, we wire-brushed away all of the previous paint; this was not only to refinish our ladder bars, but more importantly to inspect each and every weld that made up the bars. If you look at the suspension components of many of today’s Pro Stock and Pro Modified cars, the 4-link bars and related components are left uncoated to allow for easier inspection of welds and tube damage.
“A lot of racers don’t pay a lot of attention to the jam nuts,” Perry elaborates. “The jam nut (or check nut) can cause problems as much as anything else. Not only does the jam nut prevent a thread from backing out, the thread contact between the ladder bar and rod ends needs to be held tight to prevent thread contact wear from stress and suspension movement.