Karl, what year Westy did you do this to? Which color is suposed to be
which load rating? Thanks.

Mark

Karl Wolz wrote:
>
> 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
> >