How do you tel what rear springs you have? Options

[Tdskip]

Time to educate myself on the rear suspension, it seems that the rear springs and shocks have quite a bit of options. Also seems that rear springs are the way to lower the car (seems obvious when I type that) and will have a big impact on ride stiffness.

Is there a way to tell what spring you have, maybe starting with ride height? Are the springs unique colors (common on Alfa’s) to make identification easier?

Thanks!

[Dave_Darling]

Stock springs would have paint dots on them denoting spring rate. They were all in the ~50 lb/in range.

Aftermarket springs may have letters and numbers painted or printed on them.

That's about it, though.

The best way to tell what you have is to pull them off the car and measure them. Compress the spring by some amount of inches, measure how much weight it took to do that. Or put so much weight on the spring and measure how far it compresses.

--DD

[Tdskip]

Stock springs would have paint dots on them denoting spring rate. They were all in the ~50 lb/in range.

Aftermarket springs may have letters and numbers painted or printed on them.

That's about it, though.

The best way to tell what you have is to pull them off the car and measure them. Compress the spring by some amount of inches, measure how much weight it took to do that. Or put so much weight on the spring and measure how far it compresses.

--DD

Thanks, as always, Dave,

I am asking because on this particular ‘74 the rear suspension seems much harsher than the other cars. Not sure if it is shocks or springs but needed the spring tutorial to start figuring it out.

[mepstein]

Stock springs would have paint dots on them denoting spring rate. They were all in the ~50 lb/in range.

Aftermarket springs may have letters and numbers painted or printed on them.

That's about it, though.

The best way to tell what you have is to pull them off the car and measure them. Compress the spring by some amount of inches, measure how much weight it took to do that. Or put so much weight on the spring and measure how far it compresses.

--DD

Thanks, as always, Dave,

I am asking because on this particular ‘74 the rear suspension seems much harsher than the other cars. Not sure if it is shocks or springs but needed the spring tutorial to start figuring it out.

I've never purchased a 914 (20 of them) where the rear shocks and springs were any good. It could be yours are just worn out no matter what the spring rate is.