1966 - 1973 Spring Dimensions . . .

[mpaar]

Folks,

I am trying to carefully understand the dimensions of the stock suspension springs on the early 124 Spiders.

1. I wanted to know if any owners of early Spiders; 1969 - 1973, 1608 cc motors, had the original springs still laying about in their old take-off parts?

2. Then I wanted to ask if you would be so kind as to measure the critical dimensions of said front and rear springs.
a. Spring free length.
b. Spring O. D.
c. Spring wire diameter.
d. Total number of wire turns.
e. Car year.
f. Engine size.

3. To start us off here are the dimensions from my 1971 Fiat 124 Sport Spider.
a. I do not have the free length since they are still installed on my car.
b. Front spring o.d. = 4.656" Rear spring o.d. = 5.080"
c. Front wire dia. = 0.512" Rear wire dia. = 0.460"
d. Front total coils = 8.5 Rear total coils = 8.5
e. 1971 (3/71)
f. 1608 cc

4. And would any of you like to sell your old set of original springs?

Best Regards,
Mike

[davidbruce]

Hi Mike, it looks to me like your car has been fitted with springs from a '79 up model. I crrently have the entire suspension out of my ' 80 . I also have a Haynes manual that covers '68 to '78 which lists spring specs which presumably are accurate. The springs in my '80 match yours except I'm getting 8 3/4 coils front and 8 1/3 rear. The free length is 14 1/8" front and 18" rear. According to Haynes the 68 to 78 sport are:

Coils 7 front 7 1/2 rear
Wire dia. .512" front .465" rear
Free legth 13.54" front 16.33" rear
Now that being said my '80 has an early style diff but I believe the springs are original as the later cars sat higher. Also the later upper and lower rods were used. There is also reference in my manual for two different springs being supplied. One has a yellow stripe and one has a green stripe but the only spec provided is the installed height being being less than 8 1/2" for green and more than 8 1/2" yellow when installed at 900lbf. It says the springs are different rate classes but doesn't say how or whether the specs shown at the front of the chapter are yellow or green. It goes on to say that yellow fronts can be used with either yellow or green rears. But green fronts must only be used with green rears. Why they didn't give the specs for both is beyond me. Or at least identify which color the provided specs pertain to. I don't know about you but there is no hope of discerning the color on my 40 year old springs. Hope this helps in some way.