Steering rack has small leak and front tires have inside tread wear....

[redmanfx]

..... that is telling me to hurry and paint my O.Z. rims.

My Steering rack has a small leak, but I find it's causing me to drift ever so gently over to the left when driving. I've been to a couple different places and they've told me the same thing, .... it's the leak causing the slight drift. I also have the very inside 2 inches of tread wearing on both front tires. Not that great on Camber, but I thought it was not adjustable unless you had adjustable tension rods on a 92 Q. I would like to correct this before I get my P-Zero's and waste $300 on two 17's if they're going to wear so quickly. What's the best way to correct the camber without adjustable tension rods? Does anyone have a decent set of adjustables they would part with?

I'm painting my rims this week and don't have a heat room to cure them. I'll have to wait for a hot day and put them on the roof to bake and pray the bugs and dust doesn't lay on to bad.

red

[sijoko]

If the car has some mileage on it, then there will be some stuff that is worn.

I would inspect the suspension components for slop. The usual suspects are the upper links and tension rods, followed by the kingpin bearings and then the wheel bearings. Lastly, the ball joints and tie rods.

On the steering rack, there is a procedure in the FSM to tighten up the slop that results from wear. Also, you have to inspect the steering rack bushings.

I had a horrible wander at highway speeds. After tightening the steering rack, it got much better. I still have to replace out the kingpin and its bearings.

I run 255/45 on the front and it seems the wider tires are causing faster wear. But then, that is expected.

[Jeff Williams]

One thing an FSM said was to toe the car in to it's minimum factory settings, to help with tire wear. My tension rods were shot, which caused the car to have a bumpsteer issue.

A cheap and easy way to adjust camber, is to ship the bracket for the upper links. There are 4 bolts through the fender well.

The 300zx guys made a kit to adjust the front camber to allow for a 1" Eibach spring. It is 2 shims and 4 longer bolts. I paid a little over $50 for mine off of eBay. When I put on the Cali Customs, I will install these, to get the camber back to OEM spec (I hope). If not, then I will spring for the adjustable upper links from SPL. They are just a little more than OEM upper links, and should last much longer, so it's not a bad investment.

The adjustable tension rods are on eBay, and sometimes you can get a set around $100 or so. Do a search for 300zx, or Z32 in the suspension section.

Wider tires do wear more, and the directional tires sing like crazy, when they start wearing on the inside. Check your rears, they will wear some too.

The best way to keep the inside from prematurely wearing, is to drive like a mad man and wear out the outside edge just as fast .

[Q45tech]

Adjustable tension rods adjust the caster, adjustable upper links the camber.

The camber and caster are interrelated in a turn, if they are not absolutely equal side to side the car will behave differently turning left and right.

Positive caster tends to produce a stable steering system by generating counterbalancing torques about the steering axes as the wheels roll. The torques vary as the steer (toe) angles change. An equilibrium condition exists when the steer angles of the wheels remain constant with no driver-applied torque to the steering wheel. Ideally, the front wheels steer the vehicle in a straight line in this “neutral steer” condition.

Left and right caster must be equal for this condition to occur, other factors being equal. However, the straight line direction of travel is the thrust line of the nonsteerable rear wheels. If the thrust angle of the rear wheels is altered, the neutral steer direction of the front wheels no longer coincides with the thrust line. See Figure 1. The vehicle then rolls in a circle unless the driver steers the front wheels by applying a torque to the steering wheel. The vehicle “pulls” to the side.

Clearly caster must be defined relative to the thrust line.http://www.hunter.com/pub/undercar/2573 ... /index.htm

http://www.hunter.com/pub/unde...introh ... de...2.htm

[elwesso]

Regardless it sounds like its time for an alignment.. IF your camber is will below -1.5* (as i see no reason to think otherwise) the toe and caster is gonna be the big thing.

I think you coudl still get to -1 camber just by tossing some washers behind the UL bracket.

[redmanfx]

I got the alignment and went back to that same shop after I thought they missed something. After the second visit I went to their competitor and they all told me the same thing. I have replaced the upper links as well as tighten the rack and check bushings. The car DOES have some mileage sitting at 270K and needs new Bushings for the tension rods. I have decided to get some SPL adjustables, but have to wait until next week.

The old set of tires removed over a year ago also had severe tire wear like I'm starting to see now in exactly the same spot, so everything I've replaced, tightened, adjusted etc.....(Converted active suspension, CC springs, new parts) has not changed the toe. I'll check out the Links you provided Tech and thanks for your responses.

red

[elwesso]

You need to give us the alignment spec sheet before I can believe its "ok"