Are shocks specific to year/model ?

[Karb]

I have a 71e without suspension, so i'm gathering everything together in bits. This is my opportunity to upgrade the spindles for 3.5" caliper spacing. At any rate, I see there's a handful of different shock/strut variations that porsche configured throughout the years, and it has me wondering. Do I need to know what type of shock my model had, and buy struts that have those shock housings on them? for example...If the car had boge, I need to find struts with bogs housings....yes? I do not know what this car had on it, so if there's anyone reading this, and would know what the 71e had on it, I would be gracious.
I'm hoping none of this matters, and I could go with bilstein struts, but I need to know first.
Any help is appreciated

Karb in Va.

[Rot 911]

Some one has probably removed the original suspension for a conversion to a strut suspension. The original suspension was hydropneumatic struts, 5.5x14” Fuchs wheels and 185-85x14 tires; there were other parts I can't remember. This suspension on every 911E of the period (’69-’71).

The A-arms didn’t have splines to accept torsion bars and lacked the bottom reinforcement on the arm. The cross member didn’t have the support for the torsion bar adjusting arm.

The net result is the conversion to normal suspension required struts, A-arms, cross member, torsion bars, torsion bar lever arms (with hardware) and a bit more. The good news was that your 911E should have the aluminum caliper 911S brakes. Changing the struts, A-arms, cross member, torsion bars and associated hardware would make the front suspension identical to the 911S.

Here is a link to a thread that tells you all you need to know to do the conversion: http://forums.pelicanparts.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=82952&highlight=hydro+a nd+pneumatic

[Karb]

Thanks Kurt,
I located some bilstein struts with 3.5 spacing, and believe a pelican is
going to sell me the rest of the suspension off an 83 SC. I will buy heavy new torsions, new ball joints, poly bushings, turbo tie rods, and possibly some big brakes ......but that's antoher story.

Thanks agian for the comment.