Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1999 20:18:17 -0700
Reply-To: Karl Wolz <wolzphoto@ATT.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Karl Wolz <wolzphoto@ATT.NET>
Subject: Re: Vanagon Springs -2 WD,80-87
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VW only lists 3 part numbers for pre-86. Those are the three colors, blue,
yellow, and brown. My understanding is that they are all the same length
when new and unloaded, but I could have incomplete info. The heaviest
rating was for the Westie, which is several hundred pounds heavier than the
7 pass.
I put the brown splotch springs on my Westie (after 300,000+ miles) and it
handled like a pig, especially off road and in crosswinds.
Found a set of blue splotches with less than 100,000 and all was fixed.
Also, they raised the front end about 2 1/2", which relieved stress on some
front end components. I could tell because, as soon as the new springs were
installed, the front end stopped going "EE-OOH, EE-OOH" whenever I backed
out my driveway and went down the curb. Kinda odd, but newer springs had no
noticeable effect on the back end.
My suspicion is that your findings on spring length are happenstance, but
again, I don't have the data to back that up. I would, however, agree with
my VW dealer and my front-end guy, and advise against using 7 passenger
springs in Westies.
Karl Wolz
-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Drillock <drillock@EARTHLINK.NET>
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Date: Monday, March 22, 1999 7:26 PM
Subject: Vanagon Springs -2 WD,80-87
>I purchased an 82 Westy recently and it has what seems like a common
>affliction. The springs are sagging and the result is a rough ride that
>bottoms out easily. It wasn't this way when it was new, so I am going to
>restore the ride of this Westy and thought I would share some of what I
>have learned about Vanagon suspensions. I have inspected and measured
>springs from many vanagons and I found that at least 3 different lengths
>were used in North American models from 80-87. This is not just from
>sagging, as the springs have different numbers of coils and the
>thickness of the taper varies on the rears. I find the 80-83 to be
>shorter and have the most sag. The 84-85 are the longest and stiffest
>and the 86+87 tend to be shorter again. I have learned this by removing
>and measuring used springs only and I have not looked at factory data to
>see if different part numbers are listed. I have not seen any part
>numbers on the springs themselves, only dots of colored paint. I have
>improved the ride of 80-83 Westys by putting springs from 84-85
>passenger models in them. This also worked on an 86 GL that had 250K
>miles and a poor ride. The smaller coils on the progressive rears were
>completely collapsed and only the stiff coils were still active giving a
>very harsh ride. The "new" springs raised the body by more than an inch
>and give a better ride. A VW only junk yard near me had dozens of
>vanagon rear spring sets last year and I looked at many of them to find
>the longest ones I could. The longest ones were always marked as from
>84-85 vanagons. Does anyone have any factory data regarding different
>springs used in different years and models? An explanation of the
>colored dots would be helpful also.
>
>Mark
>
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