Rear toe

[Pomorza]

Hey guys.

Still having the toe in problem with my 280z. Spent all of this past weekend installing new bushings (Poly) springs and shocks on all four corners. Took it to the shop today to get it aligned and was told that there was no change in the toe. The rear toe is 5/8" on both sides (equally). Don't know what the issues is but I'm hoping someone can shed some light. Read the post under this one about wheel alignment and I'm debating using those aftermarket things.

Please help as my tires are going to die

Jan

[John Coffey]

5/8" in or out on both sides (1 1/4" total toe) is wrong. You couldn't push the car and driving it would generate a lot of tire squeal. Find another shop.

[Arne]

I agree with John. That much toe would be easily visible to the naked eye. Virtually undriveable. Time to look elsewhere for your alignment.

[Pomorza]

I agree with John. That much toe would be easily visible to the naked eye. Virtually undriveable. Time to look elsewhere for your alignment.

It is visible to the naked eye. I can see that my tires are toed in. By I will get another opinion later this week.

Jan

[Pomorza]

I agree with John. That much toe would be easily visible to the naked eye. Virtually undriveable. Time to look elsewhere for your alignment.

It is visible to the naked eye. I can see that my tires are toed in. By I will get another opinion later this week.

It may be 5/8" total together but both sides are equally toed in.

Jan

[70 Cam Guy]

Did they give you a printout from the alignment rack? The Hunter system at my friend's shop has a nice printer so they can give their customers the results. Good for record keeping and good to track alignment settings for the racers/drifters

[SledZ]

My rear toe is (left) 0.94 (right) 0.61 from an alignment shop, my front is withinn specs. I decided to do the rope trick and wrap it aroung all four tires to see what it looked like and it is obvious the toe is bad especially on the left side. When I hit a bump and there is a bit of gravel on the road you can hear the tires slip. It also seems jumpy when I hit bumps. I swapped a R180 with a 3.90 but doubt that made a difference. It's something that I am going to get fixed this winter..

[240zdave]

I am dealing with this same issue on my '71 right now. I've got 3/8" toe in on the rear wheels. The PO had installed camber bushings on the rear A-arms, but only the ones toward the front. With the front bushings adjusted all the way out, I still have 3/8" of toe-in.

I talked to John Williams (Z-car shop in Sugar Hill, GA, just outside of Atlanta), and he told me that most likely one or both of the rear A-arms are bent out at the small end. The way to tell is to look at a couple of holes adjacent to the small end, next to where the spindle pins go through. If the holes are not round, but are elongated or egg-shaped, the A-arm is bent (see attached diagram).

He told me it is difficult to find an A-arm that is not bent. If you can't, the best you can do is to install the camber bushings on both ends of the large end, and take as much of the toe out as you can. He told me that the 240Z came from the factory with 0 degrees of toe-in or out, meaning that the rear wheels should be parallel with each other.

deformed a-arm.bmp

[moritz55]

I spent a lot of time on my 73 240z thinking the same - were my rear-control(transverse link) arms bent because they are old and the same part design for both sides. Just flip the driver side over and it will work on the passenger side. So after replacing my Differnetial Mount and straigthening my Mustache bar and putting in new bushings which helped get rid of vibrations and noise - I noticed my rear vertical braces that hold the aft transverse link rear ends in place were bent. The driver side was bent back and passenger side bent forward reflecting the typical torque the 240z rear sees upon accelerating (driver CV drives the car, then through backlash/traction, the spider gear in the Differential transfers torque to the passenger side). So rather than having them bent back to true position I had new brackets fab'd up with some slots on the top mounting surface and lower point where the transverse bracket attaches to make some minor rear adjustments.

Here's an article with some Rear alignment data and modifications that I made. It's a long article but scroll down to 87 & 88. I had the custom Vertical Brace plates that the Transverse bracket mounts to in helping correct a Rear Toe problem and daog-tracking.

http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33630&page=4&highlight=alignment

My goal was to get my rear toe in total under 0.50 and evenly split between driver side and passneger to prevent dog-tracking. As of this past summer - I had the alignment checked again after adding new coils and shocks which increased my car to stock height in the rear and my rear wheels were: Driver 0.21 toe-in and Passenger 0.22 toe-in for a total Toe of 0.43. I've added about 2000 miles since doing the rear end rebuild last year and my Rear Toe-In hasn't moved or changed. I just put the car away for the winter - and will re-torque the bolts to assure they haven't moved in the spring.

Good luck and happy driving.

Edited November 22, 2010 by moritz55