camber adjustment?

[Guest Anonymous]

Jumbo.. agreed on that and I heard rumors that he dabbles a little with fiberglass. 'parallel' is the key word and it does not take a rocket scientist to bend over and observe (eyeball)this mechanical union.(looks just about the way it did when stock)I saw a car without the apparent bumpsteer control arm pivot hole re-location with parallel tie rod/control arm and even tire wear on 50% tread.(bigger diameter tires with camber plates).

[Bob_H]

-edit- doesn't fit this thread

[Guest BadKarmaCreepin]

tomahawk, no, i don't want the carrera camber plates. BUT, i reserve the right to the first set of copied plates, if they'll work correctly.

 

jumbo, i'm still not clear on what this "bump steer" is. all i know is that i put 17x7/s with 225/45's lower it about 1 1/2" (no wheel gap, not slammed) wheels in general start to look angled in after some time, which i'm trying to avoid. but if those spacers you were talking about ARE the ones i need, i'll gladly take those off of you hands...

 

thanks for all the help!!

[Bob_H]

Dan,

The spacers to go beneath the strut are to correct bump steer on a lowered car only. They will do nothing for the excessive camber,(leaning in at the top of the tire).

Just some quick explanation so you know what you are dealing with.

First, bump steer is just that, as the wheel hits a bump, and goes up, the wheel turns one way or another because of the relationship between the steering arm and the lower control arm. Idealy, they should be parallel through the entire range of motion. However, Datsun did not locate the lower control arm in the correct location to achieve this. There are two possible solutions for bump steer. The first, and easiest is to install the spacers at the bottom of the strut. When you lower the car,(say 2 inches like you did), you have put the wheels into the bump steer region. Now, when you hit a bump, the effect is much worse, and much more noticable. It is much like you turning your wheel sharply when you hit a bump, but you aren't actually turning anything....

The second fix is to slot the crossmemeber, approx 3/4" up and 3/4" out on each side. This puts the lower control arm in a position where it will stay parallel to the steering tie rod as it goes through its range of motion.

So bottom line, that is not a fix for excessive camber. Now, for your camber issue,(top of tires leaning in), as long as you are below 1.5 degrees negative camber for the street, you are fine. If it is more than that,(unlikely), then you should look into some of the options discussed above, slotting the upper strut mount holes, camber plates, etc..

The Z has virtually no change in camber as it goes through its range of motion. You would have to change the relationship between the lower control arm and the upper strut mount to effect a camber change. I found when I put the race suspension on my Z, it looked like I had over 2 degrees of camber,(I ran up to 3.5-4 on my BMW when at the track, so I was familiar with what it looked like). Turned out it was 1.1 when put on the machine. The looks of a lowered Z can be deceptive. It might be worth your money to invest in a simple front end alignment. It is usually ~$30 and will tell you if something is way out of range.

I would suggest the bump steer spacers if you lowered it more than an inch or so. It can get hairy hitting bumps when you are lowered that much, it will dart around and be a blast to control....

But no, you don't need camber plates unless you want more camber, and the alignment, as said before, should remain pretty much on even as it is lowered.

-Bob

[David K]

Dan, http://www.hybridz.org/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=10;t=001324

[Guest BadKarmaCreepin]

where's ross at? anyone have a phone number for him? i'm trying to order a buttload of stuff, but he's no where to be found!