Just wondering what the difference in the Suspension is from the 86-88 Sereies IV's and the 89-91 Series V's is.

 

There are 3 suspension from 86-91(or, 4 if the 'vert has a different one but doubtful).

base(86-8 4 lug, 89-91 GTU)
GXL(86-90 and 91 coupe)
T2(87-91 t2 and 86-7 sport, 88 gtu, 89-90 GTUs)

The t2 suspensionm appears to sit lower, then the GXL almost as low, then the base sits pretty high.

Since I keep all these parts on hand, me and a friend experimented one day.

We used a 86-8 base suspension(stock on his car for comparison). IT was an 88 SE 5sp. We installed an AAS GXL suspension, a 89-91 GTU suspension(before we realized they were the same) and a t2 suspension.

None of the suspensions altered ride height at all. THe gxl suspension seemed mushier(surprise, shitty AAS struts) the t2 suspension was slightly stiffer but not much.

We figured out that the ride height is much more a function of the weight of the car(year and options) than the suspension. There was no more than 1/2" difference between any of them, an amount which could be attributed to differences in wear between struts.

 

what did the GTUs have that made it handle so good

 

Less weight



-Ted

 

I've heard that the T2 (GTU) suspension was made a lil bit stiffer for the S5 T2 and GTUs.

 

holy-way-to-bring-a-thread-back-from-the-dead-batman!


now that I'm facing this problem firsthand, is there a difference between coupe/vert (which i have) setups? trying to by a suspension setup today....

 

Wait, you have a coupe/vert? I have never heard of those....

Take a peek in a factory parts fiche and see if there are different numbers for coupe vs vert suspension.


http://foxed.ca/foxed/index.php?page=rx7manual

 

All S5's are 5 lug. The base model GTU still had single piston front/solid rear brakes but the front rotors were larger than the base S4.

The S4's had steel endlinks and you can get poly bushings for them. The S5's are cheap plastic.

 

also the front lower control arms are different...S4 has bolt-on ball joints, S5 are press in.

 

Did they mellow out the DTSS in the S5 cars?

The rear of the S5 cars I have raced behaved much better than the S4 cars I have raced- but then age/mileage is another factor with the DTSS bushings...

 

The DTSS is the same from S4 to S5.

 

Those "cheap plastic" anti-roll bar end links are also ball-jointed, making them more direct and effective.
I've never had plastic endlinks fail on my S5 7, despite 11 years of regular autocross and track use, but I've had a number of metal end links fail (including ones from a rear bar of an S4)- usually due to rust, or the link rubbing on the bar or control arm attachment point when stock rubber bushings deteriorated, necking down the link till it failed.
Lighter, more effective, and more durable = win.

 

i have a vert (turbo!)... and i needed to see if springs/shocks/struts matched what came on the coupe - which i havent had in 4 years...

if it was a joke, good on you!

and thanks for the link.

 

true! the S4 links are usually bad

 

s4 Sport had different suspension if I'm not mistaken.

 

well yeah...the beginning of this thread covers that fact quite well if im not mistaken. and by sport do you mean TII?

 

By Sport I mean... Sport. It's a series 4 trim package.