Ordering suspension parts for my 1987 z31 Turbo proved to be a lot trickier than I anticipated. More accurately, a nightmare when the vendor with whom I was dealing decided to string me along for a year and then rip me off, but that's another story.
The OEM 3-way electronic adjustable shocks were no longer available. I tried to order them but after a year of waiting decided to go with aftermarket suspension parts. A lot of the parts listed for the z31 will not fit the turbo model, so be sure before ordering. To further complicate matters, there was a model year change in 8/87 so some of the suspension parts, if even available, changed during the model year. The manufacture date on my door sill plate was 4/87.
Shocks and struts were Tokico Illumina 5-way adjustable gas type. Springs were Eibach Pro-Kit which lowered the suspension 3/4 of an inch, except my springs were so saggy to start with I think I may have raised the body a tiny bit, lolam.
Ha, if the truth be known, this sh*t didn't even fit my car, stupid vendor.
The front suspension used cartridges that are inserted into sleeves instead of plain shocks. The rear suspension utilized a plain shock absorber.
The next two pics shows the new rear suspension parts, installed.
The yellow arrows point to the new rear sway end links. I used an Energy Suspension universal end link, #98117, bolt length seven inches, sleeve length 2 5/8 inches. The control arm and the sway bar should be close to parallel with the car on the ground.
Same driver's side rear corner, higher up. Red arrows point to new, OEM dust cover boots needed to protect the new shock. The blue arrow points to the underside of the shock mount, which is shown broken in the pic below, and also replaced.
There are shock mounts at the top of each rear shock, under the rearstereo speakers. The passenger side was broken, and usually is the side that breaks first since it is the "torque" side of the car. The shock mounts should be replaced when doing the shocks.
I used Energy Suspension rear sway universal bushings, 24 millimeter, 9-5128-G for the rear, for a direct bolt-on replacement.
The old, front rubber T-rod bushings were changed for Prothane polyurethane bushings,shown below.
The yellow arrow points to a new tension rod Prothane bushings #14-1203-BC, $20 for two, and the red arrow to the new sway bushings, 9-5128-G, 25 millimeter, $14 per set, both from Suspension Restoration. The sway brackets required a little grinding in order for the stock bolts to fit.
This is the old, driver's side front sway end link. I could not find an aftermarket front sway end link with polyurethane bushings so I more or less fabbed one from new parts below.
I ordered two, front sway end link kits from www.buyautoparts.com for $18 each plus shipping, part number L1029-152371. This was the logo on the box in which they came. They came with rubber bushings.
I substituted the rubber bushings that came with the end links with polyurethane Energy Suspension bushings, in the yellow package, universal end link bushing set, #98105-G, eight bucks, plus shipping.
Larry on the left installed all my suspension parts the first time around. He was one of the best Z mechanics I have seen.
Jump ahead about 5000 miles. The lower springs induced some tire eating negative camber on my rear tires. Fronts were fine. There isn't any camber adjustment on the rear wheels so I decided to switch springs to . . .
these *rare* OEM z31 1988 SS rear springs. When I ordered them from the dealer the parts guy said these were "the only pair in the country." My understanding is that a trickle of these springs come to market as they appear from Nissan's inventory in Japan.
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