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Front Cross Member Location


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I have built a new front frame for my 280Z and am second guessing myself on the location for the front cross member (since its a new frame i must drill the mounting holes for the stock crossmember).

 

kind of two part question:

1) Where is the stock bolt hole location realitive to the shock mount (lateral and longitudinal) - I know Ishould have made this measurement prior to removal of the frame, but the frame was so twisted and dented I would not believe the measurement anyways.

 

2) is there an advantage to moving this x-member forwards or rearwards on the car? I am installing a LS1 so I dont think I can move rearward any.

 

 

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Thanks

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The location of the crossmember itself is not as important as the location of those parts that are attached. I fabricated my own mount, and moved it forward, but that was after taking into consideration where the control arms, steering rack, and motor mounts were going to be located.

I would start at the control arm mounting location so that the control arm has a perpendicular exit from the frame rails (if the frame rails are parallel to each other). It does not need to be exactly 90º, but it helps the installation because the rubber OEM bushing will be aligned. If you are using rod ends, then this is not as important. The length of the T/C rod will have more to do with the caster setting than the position of the inner control arm location (provided the upper strut mount location has not been changed in your framing project). This doesn't mean the the inner control arm location has no effect on caster, but if it is close to the above mentioned position, then your front suspension setting should be pretty close to OEM (caster and camber). Lastly, the fore/aft position of the rack has an effect on the Ackerman angle of the steering arm, so you'll want to keep its relative positioning to the steering arms as close as possible to the OEM relationship (which I'm guessing is aligned with an imaginary line connecting the tapered holes in each steering arm while the suspension is fully loaded.

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