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Showing results for tags 'bumpsteer'.
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Cary (tube80z) has been mentioning this idea of the dual ball joint front end off and on for the last couple years. I hadn't really given it too much thought until I autoxed my car and was really lifting the inside rear tire, and Dan (74_5.0L_Z) suggested that the problem might be scrub radius and caster related. I guess the idea is that the outside wheelbase increases significantly enough due to scrub that the car leans over in that direction and the inside rear comes off the ground. Recently this thread popped up talking about swapping front suspensions and it quickly devolved into a pissing match for reasons beyond my comprehension, but it did get me thinking more seriously about the dual ball joint idea. Cary seems to think it's doable with the ball joints in the same plane, and had thought of a modified bumpsteer spacer as a possible way to do it. That got me thinking that it might be easier to just make a square tube knuckle and bumpsteer spacer combo, so that's where I'm at right now. Thinking square tube with simple clevises welded to it for the ball joints, and then taper the front end and have it open and then use shims above and below the tie rod to adjust bumpsteer. I have absolutely no idea how to figure out the spacing on the clevises to minimize scrub and that sort of thing but I'm very interested to see if I can make it work, and to see if it would be as easy as I think it should be.- 38 replies
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- dual ball joint
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Hey guys, So I recently bought some goodies for my 240z and I thought I'd share some of my experiences with these products. All from T3 or technotoytuning; I got their NCRA (negative camber roll center adjusters) and their camber/toe bushings as they seem beefier that the ones offered from MSA. Starting with the NCRA, I wanted to gives these a try to gain some much needed camber on the front axle of my 240z. The installation was pretty straight forward, much like your normal bumpsteer spacer installation with a few added steps. I already had bumpsteer spacers and those were great but I wanted some camber and these did just the trick. Effects of NCRA: 1. Camber has jumped from -0.7(stock with 1.2 inch lowering) to -2.5 2. Front ride height has decreased about 0.7 inches (this has to do with a longer lever and a different angle with the top of the strut tower) But the shock travel is nearly the same. 3. The steering response is a lot better and the car turns in great 4. Braking has been negatively effected as I lock up my front wheels quicker (smaller contact patch) 5. corning grip has gone up a lot (though it has become more of a handful to drive) Moving on to the Camber/toe bushings. These are really poorly designed, almost an after thought from T3. But they can be made to work. The installation took a bit of time because you have to take off the traverse bolts, and fiddle with the mounts. I did not have to take off the mounts completely, I loosened them enough to slip the bushings through. After the install I found out about how little thought was put into designing them. The bushings facing the front of the car has almost zero room to access the for adjustment. The bushings facing the rear are easy to adjust. However, here comes my struggles with these stupid bushings. They are solid aluminum with delrin inserts. These damn things just vibrate the crap out of those traverse bolts and they always get loose, thankfully they will still hold any measurement because they are clamped down by the control arm mounts. I am still constantly having to tighten them and you can feel when they get loose, because the rear will start to loose grip and you can hear clunking. Unless I can get my traverse bolts 100% tight I currently have a slightly "variable wheel base" . Effects of camber bushings: 1. Toe is fully adjustable to 0.7 toe out or in biased on your preferences 2. Camber is tricky to adjust as camber adjusts with toe and they are proportional. Max camber I could get was about -2.0but this gave me really stupid toe. 3. bitch to adjust front facing bushings 4. makes the ride stiffer as these are almost solid bushings I took the car to get aligned and the shop guy couldn't figure out anything with my 240z... prob to old for him to know how it worked and yet a 21 year old knows. So what do you do when sloppy mechanics get their hands on your car. you fix it yourself. TIME FOR DIY HOME ALIGNMENT hot rod style. I will make a post on how to do this. But take my word for it, this type of alignment is not bad at all. I had a different friend check for me using a modern laser machine and he came back to me with the shock of his life and said "you did THIS accurate of an alignment in your garage, tying to put me outta business haha"? Final Alignment specs: Front: Toe Driver side: -0.07 degrees (toe out) Camber Driver side: -2.5 degrees Toe Passenger: -0.07 degrees (toe out) Camber Passenger: -2.3 deg Caster Driver: 3.0 Degrees Caster Pass: 2.7 Degrees Rear: Toe Driver: +0.12 deg (toe in) Camber driver: -1.5 deg Toe Pass: +0.13 def (toe in) Camber Pass: -1.3 deg
