Are my springs upside down?

We often get calls asking if the closer wound coils are supposed to go on top or bottom. Or basically which way is a spring supposed to be mounted onto a spring or shock. On most cars, they can only be mounted one way but there are some applications where the springs will physically fit both ways. We also get asked which springs go in the front and which go in the back.

Let’s use the GF210 spring for the AE86 (Part#tgf044) as an example.

The rear springs are on the left, and the front springs are on the right. As you can see, the rear spring’s coils are wound closer together on the top while the front spring’s coils are wound closer at the bottom.

A closer shot of the printed logo and part number on the springs. rear is marked as “TGF044R” and front is marked as “TGF044F” Also, an easy way to tell if the spring is right side up is that the printing on the spring itself should be right side up.

-D.