demon Posted July 19, 2003 Share Posted July 19, 2003 Hi guys and girls, The car: 1974 Early 260Z Coupe The problems: 1) There is alot of steering play before it 'bites' - I can move the wheel a good 10+ degrees in each direction before the steering actually catches. 2) The overall feel of the car is something similar to that of a Lincoln Town car - very 'floaty' and rocks from back to forth upon hard braking and acceleration. 3) Alot of vibration in the front of the car starting at 60mph and becoming undriveable by 80mph. I was pretty confident the steering play was due to the previous completely worn stock rack and pinion bushings, so replaced them today with Urethane bushings - this helped, but there is still alot of play - is the steering rack the likely culprit here? Also added a Motorsport auto front sway bar and supporting urethane bushings, as well as changed the bushings on the tension rods. The high speed vibration - most likely to be the alignment? Are there any other known weak points that could cause this? And the general Town Car feeling - I am hoping this is either the remaining worn bushings in the car, the shocks/springs (which are of unknown mileage or quality), or a combination. Any and all help appreciated, I love the car but it feels down right scary to drive it at any kind of speed. Thanks in advance! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David K Posted July 19, 2003 Share Posted July 19, 2003 Your high speed vibration would be cause by the same thing that brings on the lack of steering response. I am in the process of changing my steering components. I noticed the joints all have signifigant amount of play to them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drax240z Posted July 19, 2003 Share Posted July 19, 2003 I'm willing to bet your steering coupler is the problem, especially since you've said you replaced your rack bushings. Its on the drivers side, right close to the firewall, almost looks like a hockey puck in the steering shaft. Its less than $10 for a urethane one, I recommend it! Don't worry about sorting out vibrations until after you find the source of your freeplay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
demon Posted July 19, 2003 Author Share Posted July 19, 2003 I'm willing to bet your steering coupler is the problem, especially since you've said you replaced your rack bushings. Its on the drivers side, right close to the firewall, almost looks like a hockey puck in the steering shaft. Its less than $10 for a urethane one, I recommend it! Don't worry about sorting out vibrations until after you find the source of your freeplay. I have a urethane coupler which I didn't install yet - the one that's in there LOOKS ok, but this will be my next course of action. It's also worth noting that the drivers side rack boot is torn, so there's probably a good amount of crap that has gotten in there over time (previous owner seems to have been far from careful). Thanks again, anymore suggestions on the boat-like rocking? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnc Posted July 19, 2003 Share Posted July 19, 2003 Also look into replacing your tie rods and ball joints. Only use Nissan OEM parts for these items. You definately need new shocks and most likely anti-roll bar bushings and end link busings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
demon Posted July 19, 2003 Author Share Posted July 19, 2003 Also look into replacing your tie rods and ball joints. Only use Nissan OEM parts for these items. You definately need new shocks and most likely anti-roll bar bushings and end link busings. I'll give the tie rods and ball joints a shot. The sway bar mount bushings and end link bushings are all new urethane parts I installed while installing the MSA sway bar. Would you recommend buying a rebuilt rack? MSA has one for $259 which seems reasonable. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j260z Posted July 19, 2003 Share Posted July 19, 2003 as far as vibration goes, i believe anything under 60mph is generally a wheel balance issue and anything over 60 mph is an alignment issue. of course, that being said, any worn parts in the steering system would affect alignment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 240hybrid Posted July 20, 2003 Share Posted July 20, 2003 Dont forget to inspect the Ujoints in the steering rod/connector. I replaced my hocky puck(steering coupler) and ended up that there was a lot of slack in the small ujoint in the steering rod also. Chase Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimZ Posted July 20, 2003 Share Posted July 20, 2003 Bushings. All of 'em. (I'm assuming you would have mentioned them if they were new) Worn bushings can definitely cause your vibration problems, too. I'm having trouble believing that the rack is the problem - I'm not sure if I've ever seen one go bad, and that $259 is about what a master set of polyurethane bushings cost from Courtesy, as I recall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drax240z Posted July 20, 2003 Share Posted July 20, 2003 Ditto on the rack. I've never seen one wear out like that! It should be easy enough to check with a friends help though. Just get someone in the car turning the wheel, and look at the tie rods. Try to pinpoint where the steering shaft is moving with small movements and the rest of the steering system isn't moving. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fl327 Posted July 20, 2003 Share Posted July 20, 2003 i had a small vibration over 75, it turned out to be the tires, 195/65/15 inch tires on a 6" rim done like 80mph cruising. i went to 205/60 and it went away. i would check the steering rack bushings, you can see if they are gone, they start to spread and you can see them protruding out the sides of where they slip over the rack. steering coupler is a good one to upgrade too, i went straight to abs plastic, its a little rougher on bumps, but it takes all the slop out of the steering. you could check the wheel bearings, probably a good thing to replace them and grease em up well. i rebuilt the front end of my suspension with urethane everywhere, and it rides good, with worn out springs and probably dusted out kyb shocks on my 280z, and it rides well, cruising speed is 80mph constantly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantom Posted July 28, 2003 Share Posted July 28, 2003 Old car - everything worn out. Since you have done the bushing thing that leaves your steering rack, ball joints, tie rod ends, wheel alignment, struts & springs. YOu really can't go wrong refreshing everything because it is all due anyway. Do NOT, however, replace struts unless you replace springs too. Old springs (sprungs) will wear out a new set of struts quckly. I put new springs on my '77 that were supposed to lower it very slightly and they raised it 1" because the old springs had sagged so badly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pop N Wood Posted July 28, 2003 Share Posted July 28, 2003 I don't think this is the type of problem you can/should diagnose over the web. Your front end has worn out parts that need replacing. Any halfway competent shop will be able to list all the bad parts without needing to drive the car. Like said above, replace all of them. Your car is unsafe to drive right now. Not to be disrespectful, but his stuff is pretty basic. The fact that you turned to the web for answers to these questions tells me you are (possibly) rather new to working on front ends. I would strongly suggest you get your car checked out at a competent shop. You can do the work yourself, but you want to make sure you know where all the problems are. For example, you need to check the U joint at the end of the steering shaft. This is a weak link in the early Z's (and BTW replacement joints are hard to come by). While you are at it, better have the rear end checked also. I apologize if you are experienced and just looking for other input, but better safe than sorry. Getting rid of the steering coupler is a great idea. Datsun used way too much rubber in the front end, and the steering coupler is the worst part. One guy drilled 4 holes in an actual hockey puck to make his own coupler. Others have completely removed it altogether and just bolted the two metal pieces together. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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