This research numerically analyses the effects of the damping device on the operation characteristics of a free piston linear engine. In this paper, the free piston linear engine uses spring as a damping device. The investigated parameter is spring hardness which is varied at 0.5, 1, 2.9, and 14.7 N/mm. The effects of spring hardness on the dynamic characteristic, thermodynamic characteristic and electric power of the engine are investigated. Beside, the equivalent ratio is also changed to provide more information for this study. The simulation results show that, by increasing spring hardness from 0.5 to 14.7 N/mm, all of parameters related to dynamic characteristic such as piston velocity, acceleration, displacement, and frequency increase accordingly. Beside, the peak pressure in the cylinder and electric power are also increased when increasing spring hardness. The tendency is also observed at varied equivalent ratios.