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HybridZ

Off centered 75 280z steering rack....hmm


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Correction...I meant to say left hand exhaust, involving the steering shaft. It looks like they cut it and slid it over about an inch and a half. This car has never been hit. No frame damage. Has the koni/Eibach 2" drop coils and struts on all four corners. I'm a 510 guy normally, so this Z isn't a stretch for me.

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As a 510 guy, have you ever done your own alignment work? Can you take a tape measure and try to figure out if the toe is set correctly? You should be able to set the toe to zero, then adjust each tie rod to equal length, then fine tune the toe again? A set of Longacre toe plates are $149 if you can't borrow a set. Anyway, as a Z is lowered, it toes out. So, if that picture is taken at static ride height, with the crossmember on the dirt and the LCA angled up all goofy, your tie rods may be too long for that ride height. You have two lock nuts on the right side-you could remove one of them and gain some adjustment range there. If you have two lock nuts on both sides, that could be your problem-they gobble up about 1/2-inch of threads each. Wish you lived next door-we'd have you fixed up in a couple hours. I'm in N. Alabama if you wanna come on by.

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No. The issue is the shifted crossmember. What someone did, during their v8 conversion, was to cut the crossmember and shift it to the left to allow clearance for the steering shaft. They didn't, however, realize that this would affect lock to lock steering. I will have to shorten the left hand tie rod to compensate.

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Replace the crossmember and get the suspension geometry correct. If the steering shaft hits the exhaust, modify the steering shaft. The addition of an extra u-joint and constraint is well documented on this site.

 

If you just modify the tie rods, you will have bump steer issues. The car will toe in on bump on one side and toe out in bump on the other side. Every time you hit a bump with both front tires, the car will try to turn.

 

Take the time and fix it right. I have a stock front crossmember that you can have for the cost of shipping.

Edited by 74_5.0L_Z
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