Sounds like you are pretty savvy about using You Tube, Google and Ebay. I would guess that you will need to use an after-market substitute spring. If you can find an honest RV repair service place with experienced old timer repair guys, it could save you a lot of frustration, time, and money. Luckily, old RV's don't have too many OEM parts that cannot be substituted with currently available stuff. We paid a nice old widow $13,000 for our first "old but nice looking used RV from hell" , plus another $8000 in repairs and replacements the first year to get it safe and reliable enough for cross country touring and camping. We probably could have done much better spending $21000 on a much newer rig if we had RV.net and other sources of advice back then. After a number of years we sold the rig for $4500. Never did get the water leak damage and mold smell repaired. If you have tools, work space, help, time and various truck mechanic, RV body repair, wood working, plumbing, RV electrical trouble shooting and repair skills, and are smart in locating parts at reasonable prices, you can avoid paying some of the $80 per hour labor costs
and make an old RV work OK for you.
