Can someone please tell me what is up with my Z's handling? I replaced the front right tire the other day (because it was different from the other 3) and rotated all of them. My alignment has always pulled the car a bit to the right, but now the steering seems totally messed up. It is harder to turn the wheel when I am turning, and when I'm going straight I have to work really hard to keep the car from pulling both to the left and the right. I have a '79 280ZX with manual steering if that helps at all. Any help is greatly appreciated....
-Randy

 

check your tie rods
mine was really bad it just moved left and right i had real hard time keeping it straight...do you get vibration once every bit when driving highways>?

 

my sudgestion is for you to bring yoru z to an alignment shop to see whats going on... your wheel ballance might all be wrong... and its never good to just change one tire... its always best to chnage 2 at a time..

 

These guys are right, man. Have the car checked at a good shop(not MIDAS or Sears). With the information you give us, it could be any number of things.
I recently had a similar steering problem on my 90+ 300zx and some one told me it could be the P.S. pump. Then, some one else told me the rack was shot. I went to see my friends at O'Brien Nissan (in NJ) and it turns out Zs are somewhat notorious for having a problem with the joint at the bottom of the steering column. When this wears out, half of it sort of freezes, giving you that hard-to-turn feel that comes and goes. I've had Zs for a while, and never even heard of this problem before, but they were right. Keep this in mind before some one tells you you have to change this or that expensive part. Good luck, Diego.