My 1973 z doesn't have dust boots on the cartridges. Are they necessary? Also, the previous owner lowered the car and I noticed excessive wear on the inside of both front tires. Will a set of bump steer spacers help this situation? Thanks, Vic. tanny@frontier.net

The dust boots are not really necessary. In fact, you might have a hard time even finding a set of new ones to put on anyways.

The bump steer spacers won't help the tire wear situation, they are primarily to correct the steering geometry after lowering. It sounds like you have either too much negative camber or possibly a toe-out problem. First thing to do is to have the front end alignment checked before you do anything. It could be just a simple matter of setting the toe, or in the case of too much negative camber it would be better solved with a set of adjustable camber bushings.

The bump steer spacers might make a tiny bit of difference in the camber, but the result would be only a fraction of a degree, not enough to make a difference if the camber is off by a large amount. Their main objective is to return the control arm to its original plane relative to the chassis and steering mechanism. When you shorten the springs, you decrease the suspension travel, and therefore the control arm is angled upward to compensate for the distance lost between the lower control arm where the strut housing mounts and the upper strut housing mount. Mounting the bump steer spacers only increases the distance from the control arm to the mounting point of the lower strut housing, thereby making the plane of the control arm back to its original horizontal plane.