Richard Cooper

I bought new springs for my 1981 coupe. When I got the old springs out today I found that the old springs are about 1/2 inch longer than the new ones. Also, the old springs are about 2 MM thicker than the ones I bought. The parts store guy told me that the new ones I bought are the stock replacement for a 1981 corvette. Does any know how to tell what should be in there, I really only want to do this once. :banghead: My knuckles can't take anymore. Thanks for any help.

ddecart

The new springs are shorter and the wire diameter is thinner? That seems odd. How many coils do each of the springs have?

hunt4cleanair

Quote:

When I got the old springs out today I found that the old springs are about 1/2 inch longer than the new ones. Also, the old springs are about 2 MM thicker than the ones I bought. The parts store guy told me that the new ones I bought are the stock replacement for a 1981 corvette.

It's hard to say without rating numbers but GM made thousands of coil spring applications each rated differently. It is possible to have different spring visual characteristics yet rated the same as stock. But that makes sense if the replacement are shorter overall with thicker bar material to come up with a similar rating.

Your 81 stock Corvette had four different ratings or coil spring applications depending on your options. A tag on the spring indicates the specific rating...if it is still present and readable of the four your car had.

Your replacement spring should have a yellow tag with a number on it and that may suggest the spring rating of it.

This drives restorers nuts because they get it all together and than the ride height is off from where they started and its due to the spring rating of their replacement springs.

Let us know what you learn. Oh...if your tag on the old spring is readable...I can tell you what is was rated at and then you can compare to your new springs.