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New stock suspension B210


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I just replaced my back shocks, front struts, stabilizer bushings, strut rod bushings, and lower ball joints. My pops suggests I have the alignment checked. My steering seems to have a lot more play in it too. Is the alignment necessary? Will that help with steering wheel play? If not what else do you guys recommend as a follow up with the suspension. Just want to make sure I'm bring safe and thorough. Thanks for any advice!

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If none of the steering ball joints, idler arm or tie rod ends were changed then the alignment should remain the same. This is not to say that is was in good alignment before. Changing the other ball joints may have made it more notable though.

 

Steering wheel 'play' is the sum off all the looseness in the system. This is the movement of the steering wheel before the tire actually moves. Incorrect wheel bearing pre load, worn tie rod ends, worn idler arm and even the gear lash inside the steering box could be off.

 

Raise the front off the ground and watch all these parts while someone moves the steering wheel back and forth through the looseness. Try to find anywhere where the movement is not passed on.  Pull down on the idler arm. It should only rotate and have no play. Hold each ball joint and you will feel looseness as the wheel is moved. You can adjust the steering box gear lash just turn the wheel from lock to lock with the wheels off the ground. Generally the most wear is in the straight ahead position so if you tighten this up too much it may bind at full lock, something that should be avoided. I would replace these things first before going in for an alignment to reduce time and cost.

 

For a quick check sight across the two side walls on a front tire and adjust the steering so it lines up with the rear tire side walls behind it. Now go over to the opposite side and look. If you see tread the steering is toe out, if you can't see the rear tire it's toed in. Proper alignment is very slightly toe in so that rear tire will be just slightly out of sight..  

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I just replaced my back shocks, front struts, stabilizer bushings, strut rod bushings, and lower ball joints. My pops suggests I have the alignment checked. My steering seems to have a lot more play in it too. Is the alignment necessary? Will that help with steering wheel play? If not what else do you guys recommend as a follow up with the suspension. Just want to make sure I'm bring safe and thorough. Thanks for any advice!

 

Did you replace the idler arm? The rubber bushing does go bad.

 

Also you may have play in the steering box. This can be adjusted to stiffen it up if necessary. Some precautions do need to be taken though.

 

Any time you change components or lower the car you will want to do at least a string/tape alignment of the wheels.

 

Also, note the B210 front suspension is almost identical to that of the 510.

 

For the 1200 but very similar setup.

http://datsun1200.com/modules/mediawiki/index.php?title=Steering_Gearbox_Adjustment

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Another thing.... the gear box is somewhere between 16 and 19 to 1 ratio. My truck was 19, cars are lighter so correspondingly lower. An 1/8" of slack anywhere in the steering is felt as 16 times more in the steering wheel. 1/8" equals 2" of steering wheel play!!!!! So it doesn't take much to be really bad.

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