springs for little river white water

i have a used little river whitewater that i recieved by following a tip from a fellow forum member (thanks soooooo much again). my problem is, the springs it came with show much more use than the block itself. they aren't lined up and look like knots of twisted wire. i am looking for springs to replace to them. i found some at home depot, and i looked at the dimensions on the package, but then i threw it away, so i dont remember what they were. they are very firm though. i cannot get them to fully compress using my fingers. i realise these springs are probably too strong, and i am risking cracking my mobo. my question is, what should i look for in the dimensions of the spring? i believe there is HxWx(something else). does the third dimension have to do with the spring constant? i would appreciate any reccomendations

I *think* they have a 20lb/inch spring rate. Might want to wait for confirmation from the man himself.

Springs @ McMaster.com

They would be 6-7lbs a peice for springs. thats the total weight for fully compresed on EACH spring to total over 24 and under 30lbs(you can go over if you are VERY careful)
-edit- that is if you have amd, pentiums can handle more(50lbs?), and athlon 64s are suposely(from older tech documents I read) to handle up to 90lbs.

Jon

yeah, i've got a p4.

AthlonXP's handle 15 (recommended) - 25lbs (max static).
P4's (with IHS) from 60-100lbs
AMD64's are about the same as the P4's.

The original WW springs were tensioned for 0.6kg (~1.3lbs) per mm of travel, and have 13mm of travel.

The newer Cascade springs are tensioned for 0.6kg/mm (~1.3lbs per mm) of travel, and have 12mm of travel.

M4 thread has a pitch of 0.7mm per rotation. So when in the manuals I recommend 6 full rotations after the springs start compressing, this gives 4.2mm of travel at 0.6kg/mm, or ~2.5kg of pressure per spring, or 10kg of pressure for the 4 springs, or 22lbs of pressure.

I still have a mass of Cascade springs sitting here. If you want some, PM or email me and we can arrange to have some sent for you.

The newer Cascade springs hold their tension/shape much better.

sweeeeeeet ygpm