NB Struts/shocks/coilovers on an NA

[silver280zx]

Hey guys, i was just wondering if anyone knew if NB suspension will fit on an NA car. I was looking at used coilovers the other day and i found a set of bilztiens but they were for an NB and i was wondering how different they were. Thanks

[wonton]

if im not mistaken they do! rotornut had some tein coil overs for his NA, but ended up selling them to ben91 and they are currently on ben91's NB.

[wonton]

i just double checked with Eric and he said, yes they will and the bump stops will work too!

[ben91]

NB set up will work on NA but the car will be high especially in the front. I did not like how my 91 sat with the NB bilstein sport and tein springs. Would require "custom" springs to sit correctly, or coil overs will probably be ok.

[wonton]

he said he saw some bilstien coil overs!

[Jack-MX5ATLanta.com]

I think he probably means coilover in the sense of a complete NB setup.

[MoD_Scotty]

Adjustable height coilovers will work fine. But as Ben said, a non-height adjustable NB setup on an NA will make the car taller than stock, even with lowering springs on it.

[mustangtomiata]

that would make me rofl it i saw it in person, lift kit FTW

[Otto]

if they are cheap and you dont want, i wouldnt mind a set to send off to get revalved:biggrin:

[silver280zx]

How high are we talking?

[MoD_Scotty]

We put some NB Bilsteins with Swift lowering springs on the back of my brother's NA...if looked like it was about 1-1.5" taller than stock. The Swift springs are the same one that are now on my NB, and they are meant to lower the car 1".

[ben91]

I didn't measure my ride height on the 91, but the rear looked like it was about 1/2" lower than stock and the front looked like it was stock or slightly higher. Some QA1 or equivalent springs of correct length would probably do the trick. Scotty, did you allow the car to settle down? They'll usually drop at least an inch after you drive it a little.

[MoD_Scotty]

Yeah, my brother drove it around for a few days like that. It looked ridiculous (especially because the fronts were Tein coilovers...which he eventually raised to almost as high as the rears). I'll see if he has any pics of it.

[MoD_Scotty]

Here's a pic of my bro's car. It's got Tein coilovers up front, with NB Bilsteins, NB mounts, and NB Swift lowering springs on the rear. You can see why he eventually replaced all that with a NA shock/spring setup.

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i95/avatargsr/Miata/redmiata.jpg

[Jack-MX5ATLanta.com]

Might be good for rally cross :lol:

[silver280zx]

haha it looks like stock 96-97 ride hieght, lol

[sil80redtop]

That's my red NA in the pic. The NB shocks/springs will definitely bolt up on an NA, but it was clearly higher than stock without adjustability at all 4 corners. I had to raise the Tein SS front coilovers way up to get the front/rear level with respect to the ground. The part number for Teins super street coilover is the same for NA and NB, so other brands will likely work on both NA/NB as well. You may just want to snag the NB upper mounts and use them with whatever shock/spring combo you end up using.

AB

[MoD_Scotty]

^^^^My bro!

One more thing...I found out the hard way that you can't use NB mounts on NA shocks (I tried because the first shocks I recieved were NA instead of NB)...without hacking up the rubber bushings that form the mount. Basically, the portion on the main rod of the shock (the shiny part), where the mount attaches to, simply isn't long enough to accomodate the taller NB mount.

So in a nutshell: You can use NB shocks/mounts with height-adjustable coilover sleeves on an NA, or you can use any NA/NB full coilover setup on any NA/NB. Unless you want that rallycross look. That might actually come in handy if you lived somewhere like NYC.