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I had a shop put front springs in my car and it rides really rough now and the front end is riding a little high. I have another shop trying to look into it. Ecklers told them there are 3 spring types. The standard springs they don't have a spring rate for but the high performance ones are like 460lbs. does anyone know the correct spring for my car and how many coils there are supposed to be? The ones in there now have 7 coils.
Original front coils for a small block were pretty light weight, around 210 lb, they were about 16 3/4" tall and had 12 coils. There's a reproduction available that's pretty close to OEM, with the right number of coils and the correct height, but the spring rate varies from batch to batch, between 190 lb-220 lb.
Original front coils for a small block were pretty light weight, around 210 lb, they were about 16 3/4" tall and had 12 coils. There's a reproduction available that's pretty close to OEM, with the right number of coils and the correct height, but the spring rate varies from batch to batch, between 190 lb-220 lb.
Hard to tell from that info but 7 coils sounds like HD springs. Seems the standard springs had around 11 coils ( can’t remember with certainty). HD springs also use thicker rod which is why they are stiffer.
Question on this. I called these guys and they said for this part number the spring pressure is 475lbs each. Is that really what I want? I thought another poster said the OEM ones where roughly 200lbs.
Another source are custom wound springs from Coil Springs Specialties in Kansas. They can wind stock or custom springs. They provided the springs I have in my car and they have been 100% satisfactory. In my opinion 475 lbs/in are pretty stiff if you are going for a relatively stock ride. From that VB&P ad - if stock springs are 293 you could talk to them about trying to come up with something in the 300 - 350 lb range and stock height - assuming that is you goal. That would very slightly stiffen the front but should remain pretty comfortable.
Small-block front springs were P/N 3851100, and were progressively wound from .600" wire, with the tightly-spaced coils oriented at the top. They were variable-rate, around 190-200 #. The outfit in Kansas should be able to make them (and so should Eaton-Detroit). Anything that's 450-500# will ride like a buckboard with a small-block.
Photo below shows the (long) progressively-wound variable-rate 3851100 stock spring and the stock linear-rate big-block spring; the big-block spring is shorter, but has a MUCH higher rate.
I'm all set guys. A forum member was nice enough to sell me some NOS small block springs. This is such a helpful and knowledge rich community . I appreciate you guys.
07-17-2020, 05:41 PM
1966 small block front springs
