kaibiagi

This is what I ended up with using those rubber spacers. No weird noises during test drive and there is no clunk anymore since replacing front diff mount.

It's a 76 280z. I've seen the scalloped ones, but it seems to be impossible to find OEM style replacements from my searching. There is no gap, but they are definitely hard. I'm pretty confident the source of my clunk is the front differential mount, because it seems totally busted from what I can see from the bottom. My plan is to buy these rubber spacers on Amazon and drill the inner diameter out to 22mm to fit the end of the mustache bar bushing. Then I would drill holes horizontally through it to make it a little softer to kinda simulate the stock part. I have new metal washers with my poly bushings, so I'll just throw those on and hopefully call it a day.

@NewZedThanks, i'll reuse them then. I bought the stock style one from ZCarDepot, so it should be here in a couple days. I'll throw that in and see how it affects things. If it still clunks, maybe I'll try buying the mount from TechnoVersions. I'll attach some pics of the puck things. They go on top of and below the bushing itself, and are surrounded by metal washers. 3 of the 4 pucks appear to be rock hard rubber, and have the washer stuck to them. The other one seems to be a poly material (the washer fell off of it when I took it off. From my research online, it appears these are not stock? I looked and found some wavy looking rubber washers on some cars, seemingly for the purpose of NVH reduction. My guess is that a previous owner replaced those with these solid rubber ones at some point. I might just go to a Home Depot and see if I can find a similar size replacement for these, and maybe drill holes in them to simulate the wavyness of the OEM ones and help reduce NVH. Thanks for the tip about removing the mustache bar bushings. It sounds like I won't be doing that, but that would be much easier.

Hey, stupid question but do these rubber mustache bushings look ok to reuse? I was installing my new t3 RCAs and eibach springs and decided to check all the diff mounts while I was there. Not sure if this is ok to keep using. I don't really want to use poly and I can't find any new rubber bushings online. There is some cracking around the edges but it looks ok-ish? The 4 puck things are hard as rocks and chipping a bit on the sides (I can get pics of those too if necessary). Not the end of the world if I have to switch to poly, but I'd love to avoid breaking out the Sawzall and torch if I don't have to. Let me know what you think. Thanks. Edit: on another note, my front diff mount is absolutely destroyed. I will be replacing it with a new rubber mount. Is the RT style mount from TechnoVersions needed/recommended in addition to a new stock mount or would I be good with just a new stock mount? It's just a stock R180 + L28, so no big power or anything. I already have to wait a week for the stock mount to come in, so everyone in my dorm parking lot is already gonna think I'm a dumbass while my car is on jack stands for a week. Also, if I do end up switching to poly, would something like a rubber washer or sound deadening material on top be a good idea to try to reduce some of the additional NVH? Again, thanks for the help.

I just bought one and it should be here in about a week. I'll let you guys know how it ends up working for me.

@jhm Yeah it seems like it would be really useful for making quick alignment changes without having to bring it to a shop and having them do it for you. Save a lot of money too ofc. Looking at their website, they have a lot of testing data which looks pretty promising. Like you said though, I would prefer to see some reviews and data from users, not just the manufacturer. Like Sam said, you buy a 99 cent token for each alignment you want to do. I might just buy one since its only $40 and then take it to a shop to get an alignment check and see how accurate it is. @Sam Henao This looks really cool, but I do have some concerns about the pricing structure in the future. Are there any plans to get rid of or increase the price of the tokens? I would hate to buy it and then have the pricing model be switched to a subscription system or something. What exactly do you mean by most advanced algorithm? Thanks for responding, this looks like an awesome tool.

I got an ad for this gyraline thing on Instagram which advertises the ability to do DIY alignments seemingly using your phones gyroscopic sensors. It honestly looks super sweet, but I haven't heard of it before and there doesn't seem to be too much info out on it so I thought I'd ask if any of you guys have any experience with this or something similar. With how often I screw around with the suspension, this would probably save me a lot of money if it really works well. https://gyraline.com/?srsltid=AfmBOoonzfGKwgL5wLRT_Wl5WHc9hYeCTI1hTJwmyUHGzwQpuW70pYvN

Thanks for the suggestion. The issue happens only when driving the car. I can turn the wheel all I want when the car is stationary and there will be zero noises. I really have no idea why it would only happen while its moving. I don't think there would be any more stress on the steering system while moving, if anything it should be less right? That line of logic would point towards the suspension but I don't see anything out of the ordinary there.

I have not checked the front cross member to frame bolts. Thanks for the suggestion, I will check that out. The bushings on the T/C rods are new and tight, I put them in myself. However, the washer is missing from the back of the passenger side. I got a new one and will be replacing that. I will also replace front strut mounts and bearings since I have the parts for it and its pretty easy to do while I've already got it jacked up. I think I'll just order a new rack and pinion, because I think that may be the issue. It used to grind, which makes me think it probably wore something out in there due to lack of lubrication or something.

I just replaced the steering coupler with a polyurethane one from Energy Suspension, and while it no longer moves like in the video, there is still a clunking noise from the front when turning while in motion (not at a stop). All I can really think of at this point is inner tie rods and front strut bearings. Maybe steering rack itself is loose and clunking?

update for anyone in the future who may have the same problem. The wheel cylinder was put in the wrong way by the previous owner. I attempted to reassemble the brakes how it came apart, but the way it was installed before was wrong. Putting in a new wheel cylinder in the correct orientation solved the problem.

I haven't done anything yet. The car is actually in storage for the summer at my college and I'm on a ship for the entire summer, so it's gonna be like a first thing as soon as I get back. Thanks for the tips, I will certainly do that. I'm also glad it looks cheap and easy, its too bad I found it after replacing basically all the wear components on the front end of the car though haha. They needed to be replaced anyway though, even if they weren't the source of the noise.

Awesome, thanks. I'm pretty sure I actually already have a poly one that came with my complete bushing kit, so I'll just pop that in at some point.

Here is a video of me moving the steering coupler bushing thing around. Is this amount of play normal or should I investigate further? Sorry about the stupid questions, im fairly new to this still. IMG_8654.MOV

Can't imagine its that, since I torqued them to spec and used blue thread locker when I was replacing the ball joints and tie rod ends, but ill give it a look for sure.

Gotcha, I'll try removing one end link tomorrow and see how that effects things. I've removed it before when I was replacing the bushings and there is no damage to the frame where it attachs, rust or rips. Not sure if its an aftermarket bar or not. For some reason I only have a front sway bar, no rear. As for the rag joint, I believe its been replaced with polyurethane by the previous owner. I'm not 100% sure its poly, but the rag joint is definitely in good condition just from looking at it. All good, im not too worried about that but I figured I might as well ask while im here.

Hey everyone, just looking for some advice on this problem my cars been having. 1976 280z, the steering will make a pop/clunk noise when I turn either right or left. Sometimes I dont have to turn too much to get it to clunk, and sometimes I have to turn the wheel almost completely over. It will only do this when the car is moving, and only at low speeds as far as I can tell. (It totally might do it at high speeds but i havent turned the wheel enough for it to do so at high speeds). If I turn the steering wheel from lock to lock while the car is not moving, there are no problems and everything functions normally, no matter whether the front wheels are on the ground or in the air. I have already replaced front wheel bearings (NTN), outer tie rods (Moog), ball joints (Moog), sway bar bushings and end links (poly), tc rod bushing (rubber) all other bushings are poly and in good shape. I don't think its the inner tie rods because it only happens when the car is moving. I'm thinking maybe I could have somehow fucked things up on the swayer (although it looks fine), so I might try to take that off completely and see if that affects anything. The other thing i could see it being is a loose bolt or something somewhere causing this, because there have been many other things loose on my car causing me issues. Anyone got any other ideas/advice? It could totally be something obvious that I'm just overlooking somehow. Other random thing: does anyone know where this blue wire plugs into and what the fusible link looking things are for in this picture? They are under the driver side dash and I can't find where to plug them in. My dash lights don't work and I'm guessing this is probably why. Can't seem to figure it out by looking at the wiring diagram.IMG_8650.pdf Thanks for the help! repost since I accidentally posted in faqs

It 100% fits completely normal. It honestly seems to make makes more sense to have it that way because the then the LCA-Ball joint bolts are facing downwards instead of up like they are with the corredt orientation. But yeah, there is no forcing anything, it fits right up like normal like that. I ended up installing the ball joints the regular way (on top), as shown in the FSM. And as for the stuck tie rod that was my original problem, I went to Harbor freight, bought a 36 inch pipe wrench, and put my feet on it. Got it to come off relatively easily that way. Threads werent corroded or damaged at all, it was just ridiculously tight. Thanks for the help

The first picture,MG 7884, is how I've seen it installed in other peoples youtube videos and how I think it is installed in the FSM. The baseplate is on top of the control arm. The second picture, IMG 7885, is how it was installed in my car on both sides. The baseplate is on the underside of the control arm and the ball joint sticks through the hole. I have not seen this anywhere else Everything seemed to work fine, except for a clunk when turning at low speeds. I believe this was due to the tie rod though, unrelated to the ball joint. I just figured I'd replace the ball joints anyway while I was there since they are cheap.

FSM was the first place I checked, I just wanted to double check since the picture is kind of difficult to see whether the baseplate of the ball joint is top or bottom. It looks like its on top but I'm not 100% sure. I'm assuming that its supposed be on top and the whoever did this previously is just a dumbass, because I've seen a lot of stuff on this car done wrong. Somehow the wheel cylinders in the drum brakes was put in upside down and backwards and it still worked, so when I went to replace it I was super confused.

Also, are the ball joints supposed to go on top of or below the control arm? Every video I've seen has them on top of the control arm, but on my car they are below and sticking through the big hole for some reason. Is this just some previous owner dumbassery or is that ok? 1976 280z.

Yeah, nothing up there is rusty, so I'm not sure why this is so stuck. Maybe someone stronger than me just absolutely cranked on it last time, or used red loctite or something. I'll try using my heat gun on it, and if that doesnt work I'll probably get a propane torch. I'm hoping I dont have to take the whole steering rack out, but if it comes to it, it comes to it.

I've been fighting this outer tie rod trying to get it off for like 3 hours. Everything else has came out pretty easy so far, but this has been impossible. This is the drivers side, and yes I know that it is left hand thread. I've been trying to turn it clockwise to remove it, but I've tried both directions and it wont budge at all. I've been using a crescent wrench and 22mm, one on the nut and one on the tie rod. Sprayed the shit out of it with PB Blaster. Anyone have any tips on unscrewing it? Please tell me there is a simple way to get this off and I'm just an idiot.

Oh yeah, I’m not expecting a full on diagnosis. Just wanted to see if anyone had any other ideas before I pulled off the intake and exhaust manifold. I’ll probably buy a new gasket just in case and use the copper stuff too. Thanks for the help

Hey everyone, I had a thread a while ago about the same issue on my 1976 280z with a relatively recently rebuilt L28 with round top SU carbs but it's still reoccurring and I wanted to start a new one because it's been a while. I have adjusted the valve lash, replaced the spark plugs, and gotten the carbs slightly better tuned. After replacing the spark plugs the first time the sound went away, but I think this may have been a coincidence and it just randomly happened to not be making the noise at that time or it was quieter because the choke was on and I didn't hear it. Adjusting the valve lash did not seem to make a difference and most of the valves were perfectly in spec and a few were just barely off. I didn't see anything obviously wrong under the valve cover. I think the carbs are tuned in roughly the right area just from checking spark plugs, but they are definitely not like 100% dialed in. The car was running very rich prior to this. The noise seems to quiet down when the engine is warm and when the choke is on. I'll attach some videos of the car cold with the choke off (IMG_7122), warm with it off (IMG_7123), and warm with it on (IMG_7124). As you can hear, the noise is definitely loudest in 7122. I have used a stethoscope and I can't really seem to find the noise. My best guess is somewhere along the exhaust manifold or headers, but the exhaust always makes noise obviously and I can't tell if it's just normal noise I'm hearing or the pinging. The sound is not coming from the block, valve cover, or head as far as I can tell. It definitely seems to be coming from the drivers side of the engine. I'm thinking it may be a leak from the exhaust manifold or headers, but the engine was rebuilt a few hundred miles ago so the gasket must be new. I might just tighten up the nuts a bit and see if that does anything. If not, maybe try replacing the gasket. It's driving me crazy trying to find out what it is, anyone got any ideas? If you have any other questions/info just ask me and I will provide it. I can take more videos tomorrow but I won't be able to this weekend as I am going camping and won't have my car. Thank you for the help. IMG_7122.MOV IMG_7123.MOV IMG_7124.MOV