Classic Alfa Forums

G'dday gents,

Do any of you have experience with stock front spring replacement parts (no tuning or lowering) currently available at E-Bay or for example "buycarparts"? When looking some options appear.

Lesjöfors 4000706: No paramaters stated so no chance to see if this part is appropriate or not.

KYB RA1003: Length 338mm this doesn't correlate to the approximately 400mm I measured on my unloaded spring, wire diameter 13,5mm corresponds to my actual spring, spring diameter 176mm corresponds to my actual spring, number of coils not stated.

Kilen 10600: No paramaters stated so no chance to see if this part is appropriate or not.

Metzger 2240203: Length 338mm this doesn't correlate to the approximately 400mm I measured on my unloaded spring, wire diameter 13,5mm corresponds to my actual spring, spring diameter 176mm corresponds to my actual spring, number of coils 4,75 doesn't correlate to the approximately 5,75 I measured on my actual spring.

Diederichs 9981107: Length 338mm this doesn't correlate to the approximately 400mm I measured on my unloaded spring, wire diameter not stated, spring diameter 176mm corresponds to my actual spring, number of coils 4,75 doesn't correlate to the approximately 5,75 I measured on my actual spring.

All the springs shown above are replacement parts for Alfa part number 102815. This part number I can't find in the part catalogues however. Some questions;
- Does anybody have experience with any of the above replacement parts and do they represent the stock Alfa spring?
- Does anybody have additional and/or better alternatives?
- How do you guys deal with the rubber protection sleeve at the bottom and top end? Which material do you use to recreate that part and how do you make it stick to the spring?
- Does anybody have an overview of the Alfa Romeo part numbers for the front springs and their specifications to understand how many variants there were?

Cheers

Another alternative:

TA Technix 32AL402VA: No parameters stated unfortunately.

Hi, I'm not an expert of AlfaSud,
maybe it seams there are at least two quite different
front suspensions set for sud, one with very long
struts or deeper inferior coil pan,
because it sounded to me a bit strange reading about 400mm coil,
338mm seams more normal (but may be for last models)
if I consider that for the Alfa 33 last model (1990)
the coils are 321mm or 311mm.

My 83 Sprint green cloverleaf 1.5 is sitting on brand new KYB front springs, I have not had the geometry measured but it looks good.. ie looks right....for a standard car...as mine is.
Regards
Peter
Ps.. send me your email and I could send a photo?

I have just changed my front springs with KYB RA1003 on my Sud Green Cloverleaf.

They were a little bit taller and I think look too high.

Hi Dave, thanks for the post. Although a pity for you it gives me some hope that these KYB parts may be suitable for the older Suds. Did you by any chance measure the parts before assembling them?

P.s. Good luck on finding appropriate parts for your QV

dave.armstrong wrote:I have just changed my front springs with KYB RA1003 on my Sud Green Cloverleaf.

They were a little bit taller and I think look too high.

What year is yours Dave, my sprint is 83 with Alfasud discs all round, when I went looking for springs my local factor had only these ones listed,
To be fair my old ones were from Demon Tweeks from many years ago, they were too long really.... substantially longer than my new kyb ones, the front of my car used to sit high, but at least the front tyres weren't wearing as they used to with the original springs, I believe they had sagged so it had too much negative camber.
So the kyb look a lot better on mine!
Best regards
Peter