what thickness are stock springs? my rear springs measure 11 m.m. w/ red dabs of paint

How many red dabs?

They were factory in SOME kind of 914.. but the factory spring pressures vary from like 60-110lbs..

What you can do, is take the spring out, get a tape measure, measure the length, and add weight till it compresses exactly 1 in. however much weight you added is the lbs of the spring.. Ie if it was 85 lbs you added for exactly 1 inch of decompression.. it would be an 85 lb spring....

Andrew

Red paint would indicate early springs. The later, better springs from the factory had 3 Green dots.

didn't welt color code springs for a while?

I have some springs from my 74 with the red paint. They measure 0.442 inch ( 11.2mm) in diameter. I guess I need to do the weight thing to measure the spring stiffness.

The left spring is 180LB, 0.479inch (12.2mm), the right is a stock spring 0.382inch (9.7mm).

mine isnt a progressive wind like the one on the left and isnt "long" like the "stock" one on the right. (is that a rear)? it's wind and height are like the center and looks "newish". i wonder if its a light duty replacement?