The free vibration analysis of cylindrical helical springs is carried out by means of an analytical study. In the governing equations of the motion of the springs, all displacement functions are defined at the centroid axis and also the effects of the rotational inertia, axial and shear deformations are included in the proposed model. Explicit analytical expressions which give the vibrating mode shapes are derived by rigorous application of the symbolic computing package MATHEMATICA and a process of searching is used to determine the exact natural frequencies.Numerical examples are provided for fixed-fixed boundary conditions. The free vibrational parameters are chosen as the number of coils (n = 4～14), the helix pitch angle (α = 5～30°)and as the ratio of the diameters of the cylinder and the wire (D/d = 4～18) in a wide range.Validation of the proposed model has been achieved through comparison with a finite element model using two-node standard beam elements and the results available in published literature,which in these cases indicates a very good correlation.