Socket IO websockets issues - node.js

Question

I have a node express webserver starting up on my debian linux box on port 8080-8083 using pm2 cluster.
I have an nginx reverse proxy server setup on the server to redirect correctly to the node-express server, with the following /etc/nginx/sites-available/default
server {
listen 80;
listen [::]:80;
server_name a.registered.dns.domain.com;
return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
}
server {
listen 443 ssl;
listen [::]:443 ssl;
server_name a.registered.dns.domain.com;
ssl_certificate /home/admin/certs/a.registered.dns.domain.com.chained.crt;
ssl_certificate_key /home/admin/certs/a.registered.dns.domain.com.key;
ssl_protocols TLSv1 TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2;
ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;
ssl_ciphers 'EECDH+AESGCM:EDH+AESGCM:AES256+EECDH:AES256+EDH';
location / {
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
proxy_set_header Host $host;
proxy_pass http://nodes;
}
location /socket.io {
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
proxy_set_header Host $host;
proxy_pass http://nodes;
# enable WebSockets
proxy_http_version 1.1;
proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
proxy_set_header Connection 'upgrade';
proxy_cache_bypass $http_upgrade;
}
}
upstream nodes {
# enable sticky session based on IP
ip_hash;
server 127.0.0.1:8080 fail_timeout=20s;
server 127.0.0.1:8081 fail_timeout=20s;
server 127.0.0.1:8082 fail_timeout=20s;
server 127.0.0.1:8083 fail_timeout=20s;
}
This creates the websocket just fine between the server and the client as seen here.
upgrades the connection from the long polling to the websocket with the status 101. If I do something from the site that sends an emit over the socket, the server receives it and acts on it appropriately. So Far So Good.
However, if I do something elsewhere that causes the server to emit out to the client, I can see using DEBUG='socket.io*' pm2 restart http-server --update-env on the server that the socket information is received and emitted out, the client never receives the data packet it should. can confirm this by running localStorage.debug = '*'; from the console in my chrome dev tools.
Saw the emit out and nothing but ping and pong packets on the websocket.
This all works correctly if I open ports 8080-8083 and use only an http connection. So it feels as if there is some issue with the nginx reverse proxy for the ssl connection of my site.