I think that if you clean the springs well you will be able to see the
paint mark(s). Look on the 2nd or 3 coil, toward the inside. Your Westy
may well have had brown marks and this makes them harder to see. They
are about the size of a finger tip.

Mike Snow and I spent a couple hours recently trying to dig the spring
info out of the VW parts fiche. We found that the 84 could have Yellow,
Blue, or Brown marks depending on the options the Vanagon came with. I
believe the Brown are the longest/stiffest and came in Campers with a/c
among other models. This subject is of great interest to me as I am
working on getting new springs made for Westy owners with tired springs.
Before I decide on specs I will need more info from Westy owners. Please
let me know what you find.

Mark

Dale wrote:
>
> I am in the process of changing the coil springs for my '84 Wolfsburg Westy
> because one of the springs broke (driver side) the first coil snapped.
> Anyway, we thought we might change both in order to be consistent.   When he
> took them off he could not find any sort of paint dot, probably due to wear
> and rust, etc.  The new ones he ordered were much shorter than the original.
> Here's what we had.  The original ones were 15 1/2" tall with 9 coils
> (spirals, if you will) now it is about 15" with 8 coils.  There was a number
> marked on them 2534 RBW.
>
> The used one that the mech. found were 14 1/4" tall with 8 coils and the
> marking number on it is 2514.
>
> I'm thinking of just switching the old ones from side to side, I didn't
> notice a drastic sag, but any opinions out there would be appreciated.
>
> Thanks,
> Dale
> '84 Westy
> '00 Golf