I am refering to the inner control arm bushings which support the control arm by the differential mount and the rear support brace.

The inner metal sleeve which slides into the bushings is longer than the bushing for both sides of the control arm. Is this normal? The sleeve for the stock bushing is flush with the face of the bushing.

The large nut will contact the sleeve and there will be about a 1/16-in. gap between the bushing face and the nut.

I bought the same bushings for my 280 & 240Z from MSA and installed them without any problems. I don't remember the metal sleeve being longer than the rubber part though, I believe they should be flush like the bushings you removed. The fronts are a different length than the rears but I can't remember which one is longer.

Sounds like you might have a quality assurance issue from the manufacturer or received the wrong bushings.

Bruce

One thing to remember in all of this is that the bushing length may change when you install the bushings into the chassis (saddles or receivers). This is because these clamps may be tight enough that they will squeeze the bushings outward as the clamps are cinched down. This may take up some of the apparent "excessive" length of the sleeves.

My thoughts on this are that the inner sleeve needs to be at least as long as the bushing, if not just a tiny bit longer. This is because when the bushing is tightened into place with the large bolt, you do not want the poly bushing itself to be clamped (squeezed) into place by the two large washers. Having the sleeve cut longer than the bushing will prevent this "squeezing" and allow the poly bushing to rotate on the sleeve (as it was intended). I would guess that this sleeve does not need to be any longer than perhaps .010" longer than the bushing itself, but the bushing is not going to be a "precision" piece, and will be hard to measure. I would clamp the bushing/sleeve assembly in a vice between two smooth plates or washers and experiment with the fit by carefully grinding a little bit off from the sleeve until you have no fore/aft movement of the bushing on the sleeve, but still be able to rotate the bushing on the sleeve. But if you do this, be sure to keep the ends of the sleeve perpendicular to the lenth.

Update, the gap is actually normal. As you tighten the two nuts that attach the bracket on the underside of the control arm, the bushing squeezes out and becomes flush with the sleeve.

Blue over at zcar.com has a great picture illustrating this gap.