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Rear wheels 280z


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on my 78 280z my rear wheels look like they are pointing "toe in" but there is no adjustment?? Is this an optical illusion when looking at the car from the rear. And in the rain the rear end feels rear squirly like when going down the highway it almost feels like the rear end could swing around real easy??? This is my first z car, so I'm not sure if this is normal.

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I thought the same thing, but I believe it's mostly an optical ilusion.. The rear end of the 1st gen Z body curves in (starting halfway into the rear wheel well I would say.) and the body gets narrower to the back.. and actually, the wheels arn't centered in the wells either.. they apear to actually be forward a bit, adding to the 'look' of toe in.

 

As for the handling, what size tires are you running, and how fast are you driving when this happens? My Z gets a little squirly at speeds over 80mph.. darts all over the place, ect. A few of my problems (aside from the dead suspension, and meat head behind the wheel.. :lol: ) are the ginormous whale tail I put on the rear, combined with having no rear sway bar, and a loose front end with tiny 195/60/14" tires up there.. :oops: Z's seam to gather a lot of air under them, and being light to start with in the rear end, they can be.. touchy on the highway.

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Negative toe is toe out. The shape of the Z does create an optical illusion that makes it look like there is toe in, but if the car feels sketchy have it checked. There are no adjustments to be made but you may just find that the car is bent. Also there have been quite a few reports lately about badly manufactured struts too, and for some the fix has been to replace the whole strut housing.

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Thanks I think I will have it checked out just to make sure. I measured the tires at the same tread spot, and at the front of the rear tire its 54.5 inches, and at the rear of the rear tire it 55 inches????????? Of corse this is just me laying on the ground with a tape measure, so I could be off a bit (.5 inches lol) but I swear when looking at it it seams like they are toe in??? And also it rides like a buck board, but I guess thats normal.

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A half an inch of differnece in the rear is not too bad but if it was adjustable I would adjust it. However you were only doing it with a tabe measure. I would take it to a shop and have the alignment checked. A machine is much more accurant than a tape measure! :-)

 

As for that feeling your getting. If the rear alignment is that far off you are probably "dog tracking." Which basically means the rear end isnt following the front end and that could be why it feels so loose in the rear.

 

Guy

Guy

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  • 8 years later...

Sorry to bring this thread back to life but I just put flares on with 235s in the front and 255s in the back and when the road is dry it behaves fine even at 100 mph at the drag strip but as soon as its wet on the roads it stars wiggling around in the back over 60 mph or so.

 

I've owned this car for 4 years and even ran 225s for a while but never had this problem until the 255s where put on.

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More people need to learn how to do their own alignments, or at least measure it. Chances are you already have the tools (set of jack stands, string, ruler), hardest part may be finding a smooth and level surface. Beyond that you just need to know the front and rear track width, just be sure to account for wheel spacers, staggered offset wheels can be tricky if they're different castings too. Here's a decent tutorial, though you should be able to find many more resources: http://www.negative-camber.org/jam149/technical/alignment.html

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More people need to learn how to do their own alignments, or at least measure it. Chances are you already have the tools (set of jack

stands, string, ruler), hardest part may be finding a smooth and level surface. Beyond that you just need to know the front and rear track width, just be sure to account for wheel spacers, staggered offset wheels can be tricky if they're different castings too. Here's a decent tutorial, though you should be able to find many more resources: http://www.negative-camber.org/jam149/technical/alignment.html

Thanks I've done everything on this car from motor to body work. But self alignment probably wouldn't help considering there is no way to adjust the rear at all from the factory.I'll probably just take it to get aligned especially since I work over 70 hours a week now.

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Thanks I've done everything on this car from motor to body work. But self alignment probably wouldn't help considering there is no way to adjust the rear at all from the factory.I'll probably just take it to get aligned especially since I work over 70 hours a week now.

 

Not necessarily a self alignment, but measuring rear toe would help as far as ruling out a potential issue, such as inadvertent toe from damaged parts. 

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On these cars, with stock rear arms, toe and camber is a night mare, especially if you are lowered. Due to the nature of the design, it toes in drastically under compression which causes instability in the rear end. It makes it feel like the rear is trying to come around or lead the front. I battle it daily. Cant wait to finish my rlca's

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There is no dynamic toe change on the back of a Z. You might be thinking of a ZX which has semi-trailing arm suspension. But a Z has H arm rear suspension and the pivots are parallel to the centerline of the car, so no toe change. There might be bushing deflection or something else going on or your car may be bent or have some other issue causing a rear alignment problem, but swinging the control arms doesn't result in toe change.

Edited by JMortensen
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