Uprated Front Springs ??

[Dreadnought]

Are uprated front springs available for older Pinzgauers? I ask because with my OM 602 diesel conversion and and reversed rims (PO) the front has settled a bit and makes for a very twitchy drive.....nothing I can't handle, but I would like to make it better, so has anyone ever marketed uprated springs for the front? and with those big rubber inside assisters does it mean splitting the axle to get them off or can they be clamped? the axle dropped and then taken out safely? I do have a very cheap engineering company near to me. I have not asked yet if they can heat/stretch/re-temper them, but I,ll bet that if they can it will be very cheap.

[Pinz710m2]

This guy gave me quotes at about $278 per pair for front springs.
I asked him if he was sure they would match the OEM ones, and
he suggested I take one off and send it to him. Turns out I decided
not to do springs yet, so I can't say whether he's a great company
or not.

http://www.coilsprings.com

There's a chart in the book that shows EXACTLY what the measurements
are on all of the springs, top, middle and bottom thicknesses, etc.

[GenevaPinz]

Front springs for the diesel Pinz have a stronger rating than the springs for the gas-powered 710/712. I believe either SAV or EI (or both) have them. Some forum members with heavy winch assemblies switched to the "diesel" springs.
I was told they do the trick but make for a less comfortable (or more uncomfortable) ride.

[Dreadnought]

Thanks Geneva, I suspect these springs are what I need, that 6 cyl VW lump they first put in the diesel Pinz was probably nearly as heavy as mine, so I will have to look to getting a pair, or at least comparing prices with what it would take to re-temper mine here. (Poland is having a 'spat' with USA over visas at the moment and anything coming from USA is stopped by the Polish Post office and ridiculous import taxes placed on items.) But it is a start for me getting some less twitchy front end.....I will say this...it surely makes me concentrate on the road surface ahead.

[David Dunn]

There are several different rating of springs , as used by the TDs, plus there are several different length of spring cup pins.

Also, your shocks could be shot. If you feel the front of your truck is bouncing like a ball, they may not be retarding the compression and expansion of the springs.

[Dreadnought]

Thanks for your always much respected input David.....but I didn't really give the whole picture......if I did you would laugh.....no seriously, my pinz actually looks comical, like one of those cartoon 'cars' with it's front wheels splayed out at the bottom. Now I know the situation is not helped by the reversed rims that the PO fitted and doubtless they helped with stability when the original gasoline engine (Polish for engine is Silnik - yes I am still learning Polish...slowly)......But now the springs have settled a little......I only have compression at the top and bottom of the springs, the coils are still open in the middle and I do have some nice little 'tester' bumps on the track to my farm from the village.....one you leap off of at anything over 40MPH and you land with the front just in time to leap off the second hump.....I have never bottomed the springs on this jump, but I,ll bet they come pretty close. I do know all pinzes have a kind of front end 'down' bias......mine just looks a lot worse due to the reverse rims. I,ll have to go over the forum and all pics to see if I can get a comparison to see how much my springs are 'settled' It has been around 5 years now that this 5 Cyl OM 602 has been in....even for me being used to Landrover, Perkins and truck diesels it does seem like a big engine for only 5 cyls? Maybe before I do any buying of new parts I should take a spring off and measure it?? photograph it and general make a star of it!!!! I don't think the shocks are shot, I don't get any bounce or wallow, the pinz is great to drive, it doesn't wander (like a Landrover with a shot steering box) it just has a twitchy feel over even miniscule bumps and changes in camber.......but I will take them off and give them a test, when I take a spring off, they don't leak at all. I have been conversing with a guy in the North of England, he is making the same OM602 conversion to his pinz, I have warned him about the weight of this engine.

[David Dunn]

Howdy, I had no doubt that the springs had taken their toll from the years and the diesel. I was getting the idea that the shocks weren't doing their job either. They should slow the Pinz from being a Pogo stick and launch it into the next take off.

Go request to join the yahoo Turbo D group.
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/pin ... d=77266015

I know I’ve told you that your truck has little in common with the 716/18s, but in the files are pdf’s of the springs, pins and other info that is of help for your truck and you should be able to source on the continent. I would also suggest that you check the spring cups that they aren’t corroding and the pins aren’t trying to push through. Though it may be a bit of busy work, when you replace the springs, check the length of the pins and if the truck isn’t where you’d like it, replace the pins with longer ones. Order a lot longer and try them, and if you need shorter, grind them down a bit and retry ( polish the upper rounded end as to not grind in the cup)… as I said, busy work of trial and error..

My 718 is just the opposite of your truck, with the use of the VW 2.5 TDI 5 cyl, the engine is lighter and the truck sits nose “high”… but I tell people my truck has an attitude and thinks she better than everyone else

[Dreadnought]

Before I left UK I did see a few of the newer 718 Pinzgauers on and around Salisbury Plain military area......they all seemed to have that slight 'nose up' stance.....I will look up the Turbo D files and start my investigations.......good idea to get the longest pin and then grind down to suit......Bet I end up doing just that. My spring cups are in good order, I have cleaned and oiled or waxoyled them every year of ownership, sometimes more than yearly.

[David Dunn]

You'll need to join the group, not much activity but has the parts manual and some other good reference files

Before I left UK I did see a few of the newer 718 Pinzgauers on and around Salisbury Plain military area......they all seemed to have that slight 'nose up' stance....

Glad to know they all have an attitude, not just mine .. though I caught mine trying acquire a pop gun at a militaria show
Now I need to see if BAE can find a M119 for her to play with.


And a week earlier, tried to slip into a convoy of FMTVs on the highway

[Dreadnought]

OK David I'll join soon, but trust me as an ex member of the British Army, If you need an artillery piece to tow, or anything for that matter, I always found that all you have to do would be to wait until the appropriate unit is on exercise (manouvers) and just roll up dressed in cammo and hook up any unattended gun trail to your pinz and drive away.......I can't count the number of times I found unattended trailers of all kinds on the exercise area......the usual answer from the troops was "who's going to steal something like that" Well...terrorists have missed out on a big one, they could have taken anything over the years, it just takes a 'bit of cheek' as we say. I always wondered how you would explain it if somebody stole something really expensive from under your nose......I've no idea how it works in the US Army but we Brits had to sign for everything on an Army Form 1033.....I once had a 'Ptarmigan Switch' (Ptarmigan comms computerised switching centre on Bedford MK truck) on signature and I knew that little baby ran to just over a cool million pounds sterling new......If I lost it I would have had to pay 25% of the loss from my Army pay.....I never let that thing out of my sight.

[krick3tt]

...and I thought the US was the only country to give away secrets. Might not want to let out that bit of info.

[Dreadnought]

The US army used to park things in strange places.....one dark morning way back I woke up in my 9x9 tent which was on the back of my shiny new (week old) Landrover 110 on the Salisbury Plain exercise area.......and just above my head something obviously hard was sticking into the tent, hadn't quite pierced the tent, but was pressing hard......I got out of my sleeping bag and opened up the tent to find the rear end of a huge missile system was inches from squashing me!!!!! nearly met my end that night!!!!.......I spoke to some SGT many stripes in charge and told him I was there first!!!! he insisted that here was where this cruise missile was going to be located and that they could not move again.....if I wanted to stay parked under the exhaust end, he didn't mind!!!!! I looked over the truck and found that even though it was of German manufacture I liked it very much.....they could keep the missiles though...not enough room for them in the Landrover .......I moved! Bet they guarded that one well enough. (probably the closest a Royal Signals NCO has ever been to an active cruise missile) Just as a side note, does anyone know what happened to those big 8x8 MAN truck trailer/launchers after they were re-deployed from UK at the end of the cold war??? did they go back to USA?

[Dreadnought]

Can anyone give me an opinion...are my front springs compressed? The bump stop has 1 mm gap.....see pics..she seems to sit OK on the flat, but if facing downhill is very nose down and splayed.....The reverse rims fitted by OP don't help that look.

[Dreadnought]

I just realised that those Goodyear G90's have been on there for 5 years!!!!!!

[Jimm391730]

...are my front springs compressed?

Well, they certainly look tired. Frankly, they don't look much worse than our 710M. Unless you feel you are bottoming out often, or plan to carry a full ton often, I wouldn't worry myself about them much. I doubt that anyone would say you were wasting money if you replaced them, but you could drive another ten years with them as they are, especially if you don't do much with heavy loads (and then most of the weight is on the rear axle anyway )