Car darts left and right...help needed.

[Sean287]

Looking for advice on where to start:

My 240Z has a realy bad steering vibration above 65mph, The steering has about 1/2 inch of slack and I have replaced the upper and lower UJ's on the column as they were worn. The rubber coupling on the column has also been replaced with a urethane one.

I took the car to my tyre shop today and had all the wheels balanced and the alignment done, the vibration is still there. Worst still is the fact that the car is darting from left to right in a straight line and under breaking.

The garage told me my bearings had play both front and back however they told me that they have tightened them up (is it posible to do this?)

My main concern is that the previous owner fitted hubcentric spacers to the car and that these may be causing all sorts of problems.

I would appreciate any help and advice.

On a side note does anyone know of anybody around the M25 who can map an Emerald K6?

Cheers
Sean.

 

[status]

Road and track down at purfleet,dont have the number but just ask for steve,you will get the right one as they are both called steve

 

[Mr.G]

Have you replaced your suspension bushings? Not sure if this is solely your problem but it made a world of difference on my car. The original rubber perishes after 40 odd years, new polyurethane bushes tightens everything up again, and even more so then when the car was new. Yu can get a kit to do them all.

 

[Rob Gaskin]

Have you replaced your suspension bushings?

Yes and particularly the steering rack bushes. With the car standing on firm ground (tarmac/concrete) get someone to turn the steering wheel from side-to-side whilst you look at the rack from above. Do the wheels move or the rack?

Wheel bearings, the fronts only are adjustable.

 

[Ian Patmore]

Quite un-usual for the UJ''s to go on the column? Discussions elsewhere about finding correct replacements, what source did you use?

 

[SKiddell]

Sean287
Just remind me what wheel tyre combination do you use and what offset (if different from stock)

 

[Sean287]

Quite un-usual for the UJ''s to go on the column? Discussions elsewhere about finding correct replacements, what source did you use?

Hi Ian,

There was a lot of play in both UJ's so I sourced replacemnets from here:

http://www.swmotorsport.com.au/product_info.php?cPath=107&products_id=1229

As with everything I'm dealing with at the moment, I was told they did not fit the shaft and my garage sourced a set of replacements through a classic car restoration specialist.

 

[Sean287]

Sean287
Just remind me what wheel tyre combination do you use and what offset (if different from stock)

Wheels are 15" (possibly 15 x 8) compomotive, I'm trying to find out the width and offset this weekend.

Tyres are 205/55/15 front and 225/60/15 rear. These were fitted by the previous owner and from what I gather the rears should be 225/50/15 to maintain the correct rolling radius to the original. This would also probably explain why the rear tyre is rubbing under compresion.

I've also discovered that the spacers being used are NOT hubcentric. This is definitley not good and would probably explain all the bloody vibrations up front and at the rear.

I'm going to whip off the spacers and see if they were fitted purely for cosmetic reasons or if it was for inner clearance issues. The car has Wilwood superlite calipers up front. Suspension is Eibach springs and tokico struts.

 

[Sean287]

Road and track down at purfleet,dont have the number but just ask for steve,you will get the right one as they are both called steve

Excellent I will give them a call. Thanks for the info!

 

[SKiddell]

As an aside
What size throttle bodies are you running with your emerald and what engine spec

 

[Sean287]

As an aside
What size throttle bodies are you running with your emerald and what engine spec

Intake manifold (W24) is off of a 280zx so the throttle would be 50mm. Engine is 2.4 bored and stroked to 2.8. Fuel, injected, balanced and lightened cam, forged pistons and turbo charged.

As an update to my previous problems...

Spacers are 20mm 114.3 x 4 61's - non hubcentric. The distance from the back of the wheel to the brake casliper at the front with the spacers fitted is about 21mm. I don't know the offset of the wheel as it would seem that on the older compomotive split rims they never stamped it on the wheel.

I guess I've either got to change to a different wheel with the correct offset or try hubcentric spacers and spigot rings?