Finally installed rear camber adjustable bushings

[SledZ]

My rear toe in using the string method was about 7/16" on the left and 1/2" on the right and the camber was way off also using a T square. All scientific measurements.. It wore my tires bald and made the rear end jumpy. I would do the shock test on the rear and it would barely push down.

So I installed both sets and got it right on (as measured by the string) and the camber is spot on (measured by the T-Square). So I now can give it push on rear end shock test and it feels great! Actually gives a good bit. I have KYBs. It was warm enough this week to take it for a test drive and it drives like a totally different car. It's not jumpy when hitting bumps, it takes them nice and smooth. I can't believe I waited so long to do this.

I could probably take it in and get it aligned but not sure I really need it that bad after driving it the way it had been for 10 plus years and not putting very many miles on it anyway....

Just thought I 'd post this since I could not find anyone else that had posted using them to let you know they worked great. How long they last well I dunno...

[gnosez]

Three suggestions.

Get an alignment done (repeat this suggestion twice more).

[SledZ]

I wasn't looking for any suggestions..... I only post when I have something of interest to share...

[z boy mn]

Congrats on the new bushings, I just did the same thing in the last couple weeks (both front and rear). But, that's because my rear wheels were WAY off in terms of camber...like 4 degrees off. I installed the bushings and they made it a lot better (I put in new Eibach springs hoping to bring it closer to stock--it was too low before), and now the tires are off...but by less. I'm guessing they're still a degree or two out of wack. Hmmm. I started thinking about adjustable control arms, or the shock tower kit from Motorsport (Motorsport! Street Camber Kit, Front, 70-78 240Z-260Z-280Z - The Z Store! Nissan-Datsun 240Z-260Z-280Z-280ZX-300ZX(Z31/Z32)-350Z-370Z Parts). Any suggestions?

My wild idea was to build new rear control arms from scratch (see my post on that earlier today)...or give up and buy them.

[EuroDat]

I take it you used these control arm kits Motorsport! Camber Adjustment - The Z Store, Nissan-Datsun 240Z-260Z-280Z-280ZX-300ZX(Z31/Z32)-350Z-370Z Parts. I have always wondered if these would work well. They look like they can only do minor adjustments. Do you know how much (degrees) you had to correct? They probably give more suspension noise due to thin rubber bushing.

Z boy m: if you were to use the units in your link. Can they do any caster adjustment or are they only for chamber?

Does anyone have the ideal settings for the rear wheels?

Thanks Chas

[gnosez]

EuroDat - No real caster adjustment available but you can get almost 1.5 degrees negative camber. Slotting the shock tower tops will give you closer to -2 without camber plates.

Used them in both the LCA and RCAs on my street 240 before going over the TTT ones.

Look over on the Hybridz.org site under "suspension" for alignment.

SledZ - sorry if after reading your post and seeing that you ran your tires bald that some sort of suggestion regarding alignment might be in order. Drive on......

[z boy mn]

Chas, I did use the control arm bushings from Motorsport...the same ones you linked to, both front and rear. They say that they adjust 1.5 degrees of camber. For my front wheels, they did the trick. Each one was off by just less than a full degree, and I can see that they're better. I'll have an alignment shop dial them in, but just visually I can tell the issue was fixed. But...they were not enough adjustment for the rear...still looking for options there. As for adjusting caster, I don't see how they'd do anything for that. I've seen new compression arms (I think that's what they're called) which will adjust caster, but mine wasn't too far off so I didn't really pursue that as much.

[EuroDat]

Hi Z boy mn, Thanks for your reply. I know mine pretty close, so 1.5° would probably be enough. I posted a photo of a home made rear toe in adjuster on your other thread "Builiding rear control arms". He was also using chambers plates in the strut towers.

Chas

[z boy mn]

I saw the pic, Chas, thanks. The bushings were pretty easy to install, so hopefully they'll work for you, too.

Also, GnoseZ, do you have information about slotting the towers? This sounds tricky to me...and I'd hate to screw it up and...well....I imagine you only get once shot at it before you have to install camber plates. Do you have any pictures, for example?

[EuroDat]

I have some photos from someones elses project. I was interested in the way he did it.

This guy did a really impressive job rebuilding:cool: the car and documented it on his photo blog. The site is gone, or I cant find it anymore. Maybe he will come across this thread oneday, so I hope he doesnt mind me posting a couple of his photos.

The rubber insulators are not original, so Im not sure where they come from, but it shows how the body in the strut tower is cut away to make room for the chamber plates. Its not for the faint harted because once you start there is no way back:ermm:

Chas

[gnosez]

After I dig ourselves out from over 2-ft of snow today I'll see what I can do about pictures.

Slotting if easy to do. You drill a hole down about 0.75 from the original hole and then wiz wheel the rest of the metal off. Our race car just has slots in the rear but we do have coil-overs and the TTT RCAs. The smaller top of the strut allows up to nearly -4 degrees camber but we usually only run around -3.

The top insulator will restrict all the potential movement you can get by slotting and this can be solved by grinding and cutting that if you want more camber. Even without doing this -1.5 is possible. Adjustable RCA bushings will let you dial in toe. I run between 0 and 1/16.

[z boy mn]

GnoseZ: I'll do some checking on the MSA site and see what I can learn. Good luck digging out of the snow today, by the way. We're getting some too, but only about 6"-8". I like the idea of slots, and I don't mind modifying the insulator some. Really, I'm just trying to get the tires to stand upright again as I use the car as a daily driver and need to keep tread on the tires.

Chas, thanks for the photos, they make sense to me now. So, it looks like the key is the insulators...the standard 3-hole version won't work--I wonder if I could make a different version or something. Could be slotting is enough...my guess is they're only off by 1-2 degrees negative at this point, so I need to bring them +1-2.