BrandenZ Posted May 6, 2011 Share Posted May 6, 2011 I just recently finished sectioning the fronts and attempting to squeeze 245/45/16s with 5" of backspacing (-3/4" for Z31 hubs) under the factory fenders. I noticed a strange oddity after-the-fact where the passenger side wheel appears to be nearly 1" closer to the fender than the driver's side wheel. As such, I only felt comfortable having the alignment guy push the caster out to around 2.75 degrees. Ideally I'd like to be able to go up to 6 degrees in the front (autox and track days). It looks like I can get 0.7" out of both height and width if I switch the fronts to 225s, but I'm still not convinced that's enough, as I can induce scrub right now on the passenger side even with the fender rolled and the front valence trimmed a bit. I'm pretty sure I already know the answer to my own question -- that I need to flare the fenders if I want to run any more caster. It's just frustrating knowing that 3 out of 4 wheels have absolutely no issue, and if the passenger side had the same clearance properties as the driver's side, I likely wouldn't have any problems. Although short of shimming the passenger side fender, and leaving massive body gaps around it, I'm not sure what else I can do -- other than turn to you guys for either suggestions or confirmation. Thanks any advance for any advice offered! Passenger centered, roughly 1" clearance: Driver centered, roughly 2" clearance: Passenger turned worst-case, virtually no clearance: Driver turned worst-case: Roughly 1" clearance... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leon Posted May 6, 2011 Share Posted May 6, 2011 Is your right side LCA bushing installed correctly? Obviously, there is an issue and it should be fixed rather than band-aided. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
getoffmyinternet Posted May 6, 2011 Share Posted May 6, 2011 If everything is straight they should be about the same. I don't even think 2" is enough, let alone going more caster. Unless you left out that you replaced your springs with cinder blocks... My stock springs are squishy as hell and the wheels with 3" clearance even rub my flares every once in a while and I'm planning on fixing that with some heavier springs and tighter shocks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frank280zx Posted May 6, 2011 Share Posted May 6, 2011 Is your crossmeber even straight? or is your LCA bent ? as there should be no diffrence. How are the mointing points, bushings and condition of your tension rods? Judging from the pictures the car seems to be in good shape so... Im with Leon on this one .... look at the problem that is causing it instead of band aiding Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrandenZ Posted May 6, 2011 Author Share Posted May 6, 2011 Thanks for all of the replies! To add some additional info: I've got 10" 250lb hypercoil springs up front, on the ground control coilover kit with the MR2 tokico illuminas I'm also running a set of Mikelly's adjustable front control arms and adjustable tension compression rods. I also replaced everything I could think of in the process of the rebuild -- the ball joints, outer tie rod ends, the poly-urethane T/C rod kit, steering rack bushings, etc. Lastly, I added on bump steer spacers at the knuckle I can't speak for the shape of the crossmember, but the car (supposedly) has never been in a wreck (minus a tree limb falling on it and damaging the hood). I would certainly hope that the LCAs would be okay, coming from one of Mike's batches. I'll certainly check both out, though. Unfortunately I didn't perform any similar measurements to the car when the 4-lug 14's were on it, which would've gone a long way in determining if this is something new as a result of the "new" components or an install mistake, or if the car sat with the same "offset" on all of the stock gear. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neverdone Posted May 6, 2011 Share Posted May 6, 2011 You should sit in the car and have someone measure the gaps. I know in some BMW's they'd intentionally make the driverside higher at rest to account for the extra weight on one side when someone is driving. Then again I have no idea if it is supposed to be this way on Z cars, and it may be because of an error. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redneck1545 Posted May 7, 2011 Share Posted May 7, 2011 Are the coilover sleeves and collars set to same height??? Although that would be kinda too obvious and easy to fix. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emeraldlion Posted May 7, 2011 Share Posted May 7, 2011 Sometimes it's the obvious that we fail to recognize until someone points out the error of our blindness. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Juday Posted May 7, 2011 Share Posted May 7, 2011 Brandens pictures are turned 90* guys. It's not a differance in vertical clearance that is the issue. Branden, do a little searching. It was quite a while back but there was a thread about how the front wheels have a built-in fore-aft stagger. This is based on my falty memory, but I believe this is a standard practice in car design. It has something to do with solving tracking issues by placing one of the front wheels slightly farther forward than the other. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
getoffmyinternet Posted May 8, 2011 Share Posted May 8, 2011 Brandens pictures are turned 90* guys. It's not a differance in vertical clearance that is the issue. Sometimes it's the obvious that we fail to recognize until someone points out the error of our blindness. And here I was wondering how changing the caster would significantly affect the vertical gap ha! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrandenZ Posted May 8, 2011 Author Share Posted May 8, 2011 Ha! Sorry for the confusion, guys! It's definitely an issue of the wheel being too far forward, not too far up in the wheelwell. The coilovers have been set so both sides of the car are at roughly 6.5" from the rocker. Dan -- Thanks for the tip. I'll see if I can hunt anything down. I suspect that "it's just the way it is", which leads me back around to my original question of whether or not fender flaring is a necessity in the future. However, I'm going to look over the entire front suspension again with a buddy to see if I missed anything obvious, or bolted something back in the wrong way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justinp551 Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 Reviving a old thread. BrandenZ did you ever work out your problem? I am having a similar problem except on a smaller scale though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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