Hallo gurus and guru-esses – your advice is requested for a problem which hasn’t gone away of its own accord no matter how much I try to ignore it.

 

Regular readers may remember that last year I had my wheel alignment checked but couldn’t get the front camber into spec. The people who checked it couldn’t offer much advice, Jeff TT’s visual inspection couldn’t see anything wrong and the dealer had no clue.

 

I came across various versions of camber kits but couldn’t find out if these were just masking the problem rather than curing the root cause. So I did the sensible thing and ignored it hoping it would go away.

 

During a service this week, the problem was rediscovered so I toddled off to Protyres in Slough who ran another alignment check with a big expensive laser machine (you can even see what they’re doing on the PC monitor in the showroom – v cool).

 

They said that the front LH camber was out and (as we all know) there is no adjustment. The bloke said that the front LH is always the first to go because we turn left more tightly more often than we turn right. (Actually if you think this through ‘cos we drive on the left this seems vaguely logical.)

 

His advice was that nothing seemed wrong underneath and that the cure would be to fettle the suspension one bit at a time till everything came back into spec.

 

He said that if the springs and shocks hadn’t been replaced earlier in the cars’s life, they were probably about due for replacement anyway.

 

They certainly haven’t been replaced since I bought the car in Aug 99 with 44,000 miles on the clock and that’s 3.5 years and 45,000 miles ago.

 

So am I looking at new springs and struts all round? And what’s all this about bushes?

 

I am more interested in keeping vaguely stock than achieving radical handling. Oh and by the way, she’s a Japanese 1990 TT 2+2 so doesn’t have these tricky 2 position UK / US struts. (What is the difference between a strut and a shock absorber, anyway?)

 

Your words of wisdom are humbly awaited.

 

Thanks in advance - Gio

Hi Gio

 

How far out of spec is it and which way, i.e. pos or neg camber (I'm assuming negative ? )

 

 

I'm no expert but my views are thus :

 

 

If it's quite a way out and you suspect a saggy spring you should be able to see it.

 

If you park your Z on a fairly level piece of ground and stand 10/15 feet away, look at the front from side to side. Any noticeable difference in height then it probably is a weak spring, assuming correct tyre pressures.

 

The dampers wont make any difference to the camber unless one is bent.

 

Hope this helps

worn bushes will cause alignment to be of ... if u thing about it the bush holds the bolt going through it straight ..... it is held in rubber which breaks down over several years ....

 

the good bit .... they aint cheap .... has u r upper link been checked for play ?

 

get nismo bushes or luke at the Z centre has some sort of kit he can sort u out with for upper links .

 

jspec cars sit lower dont they ????? the would have designed to allow for this ????

Hi Gio,

 

There is a company called real steel near you!

 

The do the complete Suspension techniques bush kit for the z for £170ish, the aggro is fitting it!

 

Frank de ruiter does the camber adjustment pack for about £30ish!

 

Mark

is that upper link bushes ... and lower where it bolts on to sub frame ? .... tie bar ?

 

paid near that for nismo bushes for upper link alone

I believe that is for all the bushes in the suspension!

Don't think ANY of the bush kits come with the upper link bushes - I could be wrong though! If you want a bush kit, try courtesy - I just ordered one for far many less dollars than those pound things above ;) Only problem is shipping but my order came to $960 :eek: so thats a bit irrelevant LMAO

Thanks guys,

 

bloke at Dan Perkins Nissan seems to think that replacing the bushes is a good first step. This seems to be what most of you think too. Nissan and 300ZX.co.uk agreeing with each other? Blimey - well there's always a first time for everything! :D :D

 

Cheers - Gio

hi Gio.

 

the springs will wear over time & this is prob a cause of ride height being out of spec, which will directly affect camber. the shocks will obviously effect handling/wear, though will not make any difference to the static camber specs you see on the screen.

 

the bushes on the suspension would need excessive play or wear in them to effect the camber to any great amount IMO.

 

however, all of these things will contribute to tyre wear, & dynamic camber settings when actually driving.

 

HTH :)

Thanks Paul - is there an easy way of finding out which is the problem? I would get bored fixing the bushes then checking the alignment then fixing the shocks then checking the alignment then fixing the springs etc etc etc.

 

Can anyone measure what bits are wrong or is that too simple an answer! :D

it would be easier if they gave a ride height for you to check, but i cant find any such data.

 

they do give the dimensions of the springs however : spring data

Thanks again, Paul - can this be measured on the car or do we have to dismantle it and get the spring(s) out?

 

TIA - Gio

I noticed more neg camber on my N/s rear than the other one. Checked the adjuster thing and it was well into the negative end. Reajusted it out as far as possible and found the other side was already at max positive on the settings. The rear wheels are still very slightly neg camber but much much better. Then I found that this adjustment puts out the toe-in as well. So re set my toe-in using my home made tracking tool. 2 pieces of wooden beading flat side to flat side held together with elastic bands. Use as a measure of the track. Dont laugh! It works. Measure at the wheel rims back and front until you see the 0-4mm toe in level. I know not dead accurate but it was good enough to spot 8mm toe in. Anyway i wasted a set of tyres in 4k one time with a "professional" who didnt know how to use or calibrate his fancy equipment. So I tend to trust my own old technology now.

 

You are right about the fronts being more problematic tho. My 130k car has original springs and no sign of sag. New shocks all round and top links were 40k ago and one side has signs of going again. No real negative camber problem at the front tho. If springs had sagged then this would defo cause too much neg camber.