Hello, I was recently putting my car back together and noticed that my front left wheel is sitting about 2cm further forward than my front right wheel

I have made measurements from the crossmember to the rear srings and found only a 3mm difference and that is as close to perfect as i could get it by using the "play" in the mounting bolts.

The bolt that "should" adjust this (i dont know what its called but its the one you adjust that is situated just in front of the swaybar mount under the radiator) does nothing. The only way to make this effective would be to place a larger bush but there must be a more effective way?

i am stumped. Is there a bolt that could be adjusted to make up the 2cm difference? Am i trying to fix a problem that should be ignored? Should i burn the car and start a new project? (cause that is what i feel like doing!)

Any help is appreciated but can you keep it non technical because even though im handy with a spanner i dont know the names of all the steering/suspension components.

Cheers, Jared.

Has the car been in a accedent? if so, i've got some bad news for you (ok its not that bad but still pretty bad)

Have you checked the wheelbase on both sides?

Is the left one further forwards? Or is the right one further back?

20mm is a lot. Start looking for bent things.

Are the castor rod bushes all in the same condition?

Are you sure the diff is installed straight? Pretty unlikely, I would think.

Are the castor rods the same length? Or is one bent?

yeah i have checked the whellbase and it is definately the left one that is forward.

Nothing appears bent and i didnt notice anything when i took it all apart.

what part is the castor rod?

i will replace all bushes this weekend just to make sure.

i didnt measure from the diff, i measured from where the rear leaf springs bolt on to the chassis. i figured that was more likely to be accurate.

It had been in an accident but i dont see how that could make a difference if eveything measures up on the crossmember to within 3mm. and the damage was on the right hand side so one would assume that would be the side that was out but its not.

still stumped.

is there a diagram showing what all the suspension bits are called on this site? i just did a scan of the tech section and ran a search but i couldnt find one.

Jared.

*possible stupid reply warning*

Did you measure it from the front left to the rear left and front right to the rear right and then compared the measurements or did you measure it from the front right to rear left and vica versa?
The first method will not always indicate if the body is twisted but the second method will.

The castor/Radius Rod is the one that goes from the lower control arm diagonaly to the bracket under the radiator.

Worn bushings can cuase this. Also see how many threads are sticking out of the nut at the end by the radiator. If someone has gorrilla torque one side and left the other just snugged one rod will be pulled forward more than the other.
When we got our coupe the bushes were worn and one side was 16mm further forward.
Also put the thing on an alignment rack so you know for sure. 1200's were econboxes and hence not precision built. I used to do alignment work at a Toyota dealership long ago and you would be surprised how far out stock production cars are. You can use a plomb bob to mark spots on the garage floor to see if the car is square or not.

Tom

as rallytwit said, its quite common for wheelbase to be out by this much from one side to the other even on new cars. Don't get too worked up about it.

I doubt worn bushes will account for 20mm. If you really want to fix it, you'll need to make the castor rods adjustable. But you could just live with it like every other car on the road - it won't cause any great problems for a road car. If you're planning on racing, its a different story. Problem is you've lost that blissful ignorance now...

B110 Front Suspension

The castor rod is #35 in this diagram. Nissan calls it the "front suspension tension rod".

Thanks everyone, ill try all these solutions and replace all the bushes and ill let you know how i go. ill get back to you next week some time.