'toe in' on my rear tire problem

[PUSHER]

looking down at my car my tires are as follows:

| |

| \ (granted not to this degree of toe)

Now, I know I have a blown shock on that tire. So here are my line of questions...

1) Is this caused by the rear shock being blown?

2) Did the PO hit something and bend something and blow the shock?

I'm new to z's and after taking a look in the back I noticed their is really nothing adjustable to correct the toe with. Will the new shock fix it or do I need to buy a certain unatainable piece? I'm most likey gonna get an allignment at a shop and was wondering if they were gonna charge me up the arse to get this fixed or if it just takes some altercations and adjustments to get it right. Thanks.

[Ed]

1. No, having a blown shock will only induce a bounce in your tire, kind of like riding only on the spring.

2. Most likely the PO hit something, and without seeing for ourselves it could be anything from the A arm to the hub. First I would check the A arm bushings where they attach to the body. Make sure everything looks square and straight.

If you do take it to the allignment shop DONT have them do the work for you, have them tell you what is wrong then do the work yourself. You will get raped by the allignment shop for parts and labor.

And yes you are correct there are no adjustments to be made back there.

Let us know what you find and we will help you through it!

[beandip]

what year is it and it's a Z isn't ? :classic:

[PUSHER]

Doh, 76 280z.

[2ManyZs]

If the toe-in is causing odd tire wear on that side, I'd almost be tempted to take the car and have it put on a frame machine at a good body shop instead of wasting money on the alignment shop.

The alignment shop is only going to tell you the alignment isn't right, and if nothing is visibly bent/broken/wrinkled on the underside of the chassis, the next place they will suggest is a chassis machine anyways. Since there is no adjustment (that is unless it has adjustable camber bushings) the only possible reason for the toe problem is that something such as the control arm is bent/or the chassis has been tweaked.

If you have a digital camera, and can jack the car up far enough to take a good pic of the control arm mounting and rear control arm, most anyone one of us here can tell you whether or not there is a bent piece/wrinkle where it shouldn't be/ or other obvious problem.

[panchovisa]

I agree with the concensus. The right a-arm should show a buckle at some point. It is also possible that the pivot pin thru the bottom of the strut is bent (more likely if a-arm has stock rubber bushings).

The Z cars did have a small degree of toe in built into the rear. It is possible that the side you think is straight is actually toe'd out. In that case you can loosen the bolts (four from body to drop pieces) and (four from drop pieces to lower rear cross piece forming inner a-arm pivots) and genty reposition the lower rear pivot points towards the left rear. The front pivots are fixed (and could only be moved on a frame rack) ,but the rear pivot points are kind of "loosely" located by the assembly of sheet metal stampings,over sized holes, and under sized bolts (talk about tolerance stacking!).

Most things can be moved with a big enough hammer (part joke, mostly serious).

[dspillman]

Raising rear wheels off the ground and while grasping outer tire, try to rock both top to bottom and side to side...rule out bearing/stub axle being bad Stock bushings shouldn't move a whole lot . Good idea for all cars occasionally.

Check out the condition and positioning of rubber bushings retained at the inner pickup points of control arm

should be able to measure center of spindle pin to center of inner large bolt head:D and compare right and left side for both front and rear of control arm,if more then a 1/8" difference look at bent control arm........ Comparing right and left wheel base measurements may inlighten as well

if bent you then need to decide if the blame spindle pin will come out.......replacing the whole corner is quicker/easier if spindle pin refuses to come out,swapping strut inserts is a breeze with spring compressor vs trip to the machine shop. Of course the hammer approach may "straighten",but risks seperating the spot welds.

If your lucky the PO has installed eccentric bushings. Adjust as needed. or replace with aftermarket poly....although stock rubber will feel better for the street.

PICS would be nice.

david

[PUSHER]

Thank you so much, Ill play around with it this morning with those ideas in mind. Will work on getting pictures up tonight.

[PUSHER]

Rest in is Gallery, thanks.

[PUSHER]

I'm human... I make mistakes...

[PUSHER]

Allot of mistakes....

[2ManyZs]

I looked through all the pics while I was approving them and I don't see any obvious problem.

The inner control arm bushings look to be originals and not in the best of shape though.... The toe-in looks a bit off, but not too bad.

I'd say changing the inner control arm bushings might be enough to fix it, but, at the same time, there still has to be a reason for it to be off.

You could take the easy way out and replace the inner control arm bushings with the adjustable ones, which will should give you plenty of adjustment to put the toe-in where it should be and kill two birds with one stone, new bushings and fixing the toe problem. Plus you would gain a small amount of camber adjustment to boot.....

Tough one to call....if it were mine, I think I'd go with the adjustable control arm bushings, perhaps also change the spindel pin bushings at the same time, replace the strut cartidges, check the stub axle bearings and everyting else whil eyou have it apart. Then put it on a frame machine when you have the time and money available just to be sure the chassis is not tweaked a little.

Motorsport Auto still sells the adjustable bushings, so it is not a problem to get them.