GRR my 240's suspension is testing my patience..

[Sixbanger]

Sorry guys, just have to vent after today's suspension adventure. When I bought my '96 240 a couple months back, it had very negative rear camber. I thought it was no big deal considering the car has eccentric bushings to dial this out. Not so, turns out when I got a cheap alignment from a guy at work (whole other can of worms, what a jackass that guy), the camber was already maxed out. Furthermore, "because" I put RS*R springs and Tokicos on the car, the toe settings were very negative as well. At least he got the toe maxed out to almost 0, so I wasn't too upset about the bad camber. To fix the rear camber, I settled on getting some battle version rear upper control arms from Phase2Motortrend (good service). Installed the arms tonight, dialed out the -3 degrees of rear camber and with an ear-to-ear smile on my face went out for a test drive. To my shock, the rear toe went SUPER negative now and the car feels like the rear tires are riding on snow constantly. No worries I thought, I'll just do a crappy home toe alignment with a long 2x4, and set the toe back to normal. Nope, still negative. Worse yet, the car started to crab-walk (drive) now. Now I must drop $250 or so for rear toe links to get everything back to spec (the spec at which it neve was in the first place).

This car has turned into a nightmare to set up correctly. I can take it in for a real alignment again (i know I should), but the toe is maxed out on + right now and it's still negative (straight 2x4 points away from car body around door area, I know its ghetto, but it works). I believe I'm stuck with getting the rear toe arms, which I don't really mind, I just didn't anticipate this and thus can't afford it right now.

This, and I MUST buy new tires because my rear's steel belts are starting to show.. not good. Oh AND my dad's z32 seems to be running on its last leg now... What a freakin adventure, eh?

Anyway sorry for the long rant post... here's cliff's notes:
-my camber was jacked up when car was bought
-alignment didnt fix
-battle version rear arms fixed it, but made toe max out
-now must get toe links to correct toe, car handles like poop
-other car in family is running like crap too
-thanks for your sympathy.

If you read this far, you have a longer attention span than me. Again, sorry to rant guys, I just hate reading about you guys spending money on things you care about (power, coilovers), while it seems I'm spending more money on just making thigs work correctly.

Alex

[misnomer]

Hey man, I think most of us really ahve no money to spend (like myself), and are putting time into keeping things running. Don't feel bad dood.

[drift into a curb]

At least you're getting it out of the way. And plus your car will be running on BattleVersion parts man.. that's an A+. Just consider it performance. No worries.

[Jeff240sx]

Stuff breaking is always the greatest thing that can happen to a car. Cuz then... it's time to upgrade!
Like.. my engine for example...
-Jeff

[AceInHole]

LoL... sounds like me. I had my car running great, then drilled a hole in the head. Then had to drive old minivan, and the driver's side wheel bearing broke. Then had to fix the wheel bearing, swap heads on the car, and now my turbo is busted because I drove to NJ.

So.... there's always someone out there with worse luck, don't sweat it.

[Sixbanger]

Yea, thanks for the sympathy guys. Guess I'll order those toe links in a few days when I get my next paycheck. I just feel kinda bad because I went to an auto-x this weekend to watch some cars run and there were 2 s14's there that simply put mine to shame... then again they weren't driven by college students either. Now I want some coilovers too damnit! hehe. Anyway, good to hear other people go through this crap too. Such is life.

[AceInHole]

I went to an auto-x this weekend to watch some cars run and there were 2 s14's there that simply put mine to shame... dude... there are stock Neons that put all the 240's to shame just because the drivers are seasoned vets.

[Apparition]

You could be stuck without a car with a messed up tranny and end up paying out the ass to get that fixed. ;)

I hate my life sometimes. :D

[sykikchimp]

Hard to believe you can adjust toe anymore...

I have JIC rear upper arms, and JIC coilovers.. dropped probably 1.5"'s I have only 0.13 degrees of toe in the rear on both sides.

Sounds like you should just take it to someone that actually has the proper tools to do the alignment.

[Sixbanger]

well, yes it is hard to believe. I got an alignment done professionaly just weeks ago, and everything was fine, but the guy told me that my toe is maxed out, and still points out on both sides. Best he could do was set one side even with the other. This and seeing how my ghetto method wasn't working yesterday tells me I need more adjustment back there. The car seems to have been hit down the entire passenger side before, and I'm a bit worried now that the frame is bent. I looked the entire thing over and everything seems to be fine, but just seeing how the rear suspension geometry is all screwed up (WAS even screwed up when stock) leaves me with some doubt. Don't trust carfax, this accident was never reported, so I'm assuming it was major. NOW I feel ****ty.