Jerry - I don't disagree. I use double shear brackets in areas that receive constant stress (my truck arms are in double shear at both ends), but the panhard bar is not stressed beyond the strength of the Heims, bolts, or brackets and I've never had a problem. Maybe I'm living on false security..?

Driver50x - I raced stock cars off & on for 35 years and used a lot Heim ends. I never had one break and some of them took some pretty good hits. I will admit, though, that I generally used 5/8 and 3/4 Heims, not 1/2 inch.

One thing that can be done to make Heim joints safer - put a retention washer on the outside so if the ball somehow slips out of the outer ring it still can't come completely off. In fact, if you put your car through a NSRA safety inspection, they require retention washers on all Heims.