So somewhere (I think Impala forums) I read all this voodoo that supposedly applied to odd-sizing the panhard bar on the F41 cars. I looked at the bushings that came out of my F41 panhard bar and, given they are the same vintage as the rest of the bushings, I assume them to be original. They appear to be the same size, and we measured them at around 1 1/16" OD and 9/16" ID. Looked identical end to end, as does the bar.
According to my parts book, 3866557 1965-70 / ALL 1.137 IN OD x .566 IN ID
That's pretty much what I measured. While there are other cases where you see "EXC HD SUSP" and special cases for it, from what I can tell the panhard bar bushings don't change. I can't find a bushing by that number so I'm not any closer yet.
But does anyone have any info to the contrary about F41 on the fullsize cars?
I can only comment that for 1970 all the panhard bars had the large bushing at the diff end, except the station wagons had a smaller bushing at the diff end (to likely match the bushing at the chassis end). I swear I had a dual small bushing panhard bar here somewhere, but can't find it, or have any idea where I would have got it from.
I guess what's throwing me is that in my book, for 1965 all the way through 1970, there is one axle tie rod (panhard bar) listed: 6856396. And there is exactly one bushing which happens to fit it, 3866557.
If a bushing were smaller, what's smaller? If it's smaller OD it falls out. If it's smaller ID it doesn't fit the bolt. So I'm not even clear what it even means to have a "smaller" bushing. I'm not arguing, by the way, just trying to understand.
If it used a bushing with a smaller ID and a smaller bolt mount stud, I guess that would make sense.
When you look at shocks, for example, there are different parts for "HD OR SPEC PERF FRONT AND REAR SUSPENSION". But not for anything pahhard bar related on the 65-70 chassis as far as I can see.
Another thing I noticed is that some parts that were "special" in 1966 were "standard" by 1969-70. Like the stud where the panhard bar mounts, if you got F41 you got the bigger 9/16 stud. But for 67-70 it looks like all cars got the larger stud. Maybe it just because more cost effective to have fewer special parts? I don't know.
I also see oddities like a different "arm and ball stud assembly, steering knuckle control lower" which I guess is a ball joint? F41 got a special one. What's a special ball joint?
-- Edited by davepl on Saturday 10th of February 2018 01:56:53 PM
Anyone feel their Google-fu is strong enough to find the right bushing? 3866557 is long since discontinued. The following is the closest I could find but it's not a rubber bushing, which is what I actually want!
Sounds like what they're saying in that Chevelle thread is that the B-Body uses the same sway bar as the Chevelle, but being wider, needs spacers to reach out to the control arms?
Yes, the B-body rear sway bar is the same as used on the A-bodies, that's why it needs the spacers to fit onto the wider lower control arms. Hillar said he used to grab them from A-body cars in the junk yards all the time.
I stuck that Amazon bushing in the panhard bar today. It fit fine. I'm a little worried because it's a hard bearing (no real deflection), but we'll see how it rides I guess!
