Just a little background on the Z first before I post- FR wheel curbed severely a few months ago. Replaced: shocks, struts, swaybar bushings, lower control arm(front right), lower control arm(rear right), adjustable tension rods, FR outer tie rod, 300 degree camber shims.
I took the Z to a shop and had a friend do the alignment. The front right and left rear wheels are out of spec and it pulls slightly to the right. Car is on stock wheels with only a .08" drop so alignment should not be out of spec, especially with adj. tension rods. Only the right wheels touched the curb, the left side was left untouched. Is this information consistent with frame damage? Its odd that the left rear wheel is off at all since it was the furthest wheel from the point of impact. I can’t get the Z to a frame shop yet because of the snow. My next step is swapping out the front right kingpin and crossmember. If I’m still out of spec I’m planning on adding adjustable upper control arms and rear toe arms.
You can have a body shop/repair shop use a tram and check if the frame is within spec. Alot of the bigger collision shops have these, as they have cars roll in all the time with the frame tweaked of diamond’d.
Yes, guarantee it’s slight unibody shift or, more likely, a tweaked crossmember. It doesn’t take much really. Unibody’s are designed to absorb and dissipate impact energy in this exact manner, by flexing and distorting.
how “out of spec” is it… lowering a car will change the geometry. and especially with the work you just did, the new ball joint and all that arent worn. just get a good alignment and if after that you notice something is still off id worry.
I don’t remember the exact numbers, I’m trying to find that out right now… It wouldn’t be the LCA’s or the tie rod, I bought all 3 used from Z1 but the ball joints are very firm.
i dont know the dynamics of a Z’s suspension. should go to a specific platform forum for that, but anytime you mess with adjustable links like a tie rod/tie rod end something will get thrown off. anytime you do a major overhaul of a suspension or install new, adjustable parts you should get an alignment.
anytime a susp is changed ya should get a alignment ,at least get it checked esp when tie rods are changed :nod when ya call h/v collision tell jamie john sent ya she will help ya
Mine alignment was really fucked up when I did a 5 lug swap on my car with different spindles. The steering geometry is different from a '92 to a '94 (spindles).
The front wheels looked like this: / . Just moving it around my friends driveway blew out the power steering pump.
Like adam said man, it doesnt take very much to tweak the unibody a bit on cars. It all depends on how you hit and how hard. Regardless of how you fast you were going, by the looks when you showed pics, you smacked that curb pretty good so its very possible.