harsh ride in rear suspension

[randy 77zt]

found a problem in my 77 z-it was riding hard.i thought the tokico illumina struts were out after 5years.but after checking things out on alignment rack a found out the sway bar bushings on car body were not allowing bar to swivel-bushings were acting like a torsion spring.removed them and applied 3m silicon paste.ride is much better now.then i tracked the problem of the rear steering sideways slightly when i got off of gas on freeway.the urathene bushings were wearing out the mounting points in unit body.i put oem nissan bushings back in .i am still going to contact tokico about warrenty on struts -supposed to be lifetime.the 250"lb springs are hard on struts .my car is a reasearch and development vehicle.i have tried a lot of aftermarkit stuff and alot of parts have been tossed .i am trying to make car like a new corvette -no funny noises just results.most people probably wont have these problems if car isnt driven much.another problem is old paint and corrosion on wheel mounting faces-cleaned these parts up and got rid of alot of high speed vibration but i am changing rear tires soon .i still have the cv adaptors laying around that i got from scottie.i am going to try these soon after i get a machinest buddy to weld them to the 280z flanges .i have a good welder but i dont have a lath to spin the unit after tack welding to check run out.car is used 50 miles a day at 80 mph.since i am a ford dealer tech i am sensative to vibration-i work on brakes and suspension.

[DavyZ]

Thanks for posting that Randy--good suspension info is always helpful. What tires will you be going with this next time around? Khumos? Or are those only for the track? Just curious.

 

Hey, make sure you get to the Sept 8th HybridZ meeting at the San Leandro Marina at 10AM! I'd like to ride in your car again

 

Davy