Spindles need replacing?

ductape · 02-06-07, 05:50 PM

Hi, worn wheel bearings made bad marks on my spindles and the mechanic says he wont be able to pre-load them properly the way they are, but that he could just put them back in the way they are but I risk having to change them later again. I am putting brand new bearings, but if they are not installed per spec, they will wear out too quickly I guess? causing more damage to the spindles?

How much is a pair of spindles, and what amount of wear is too much wear?

I can feel with my fingers the wear and it is worse on one side. about the thickness of a finger nail.

IdahoDoug · 02-06-07, 06:45 PM

Tough to guess without a picture, but spindles are not cheap. There's a very recent (last 30 days) thread where I asked how much the new ones are and Cdan posted it. $200 ish? Anyone?

I have minor marks on my spindles and have had them for 60,000 miles and two consecutive repacks (still original wheel bearings). If they're not toasted, a mechanic with good hands can get the bearings set up fine. I'm assuming he's putting new races in at the same time? If yes, then you'll be fine but it bears checking a couple thousand miles from now in case they loosen a bit. Obviously you have to make this call yourself since you're there and we're not, and if a bearing fails and you roll the truck it's generally regarded as a bad decision....

DougM

nakman · 02-06-07, 08:04 PM

So you have a step in the spindle that's about the depth of the width of your finger nail? What's probably happening is when your bearing preload gets set the big wheel bearing is just shoving up against that step, instead of "sliding" up the spindle to its happy little place. I would save the new big bearing and just repack the old until you can kick down for the new spindle.

Here's an idea if you were doing this all yourself: if you can smooth out the step using a stone and/or abrasive cloth, then use some shim stock to shim out your race, you could conceivably shim out the wear area of the bearing to a slightly new location on the spindle. then when the preload gets set the bearing would extend past your current step a little bit.. talking like .010" or so. but the shims would need to be uniform so the race was still concentric with the other race, and both still perpendicular to the centerline of the spindle. And you'd need to reset the preload after a bit as the smaller wear surface of the spindle wore down a little.. but I bet you could get by like that for a while.

OTOH, new spindles are actually a good upgrade.. and probably worth just buying now especially if the guy's still got it all apart. Your worn bearings and worn spindle was caused by lack of maintence and/or lack of knowing how to set the preload.. both easy to learn and cheap tools to get. hth.

Miescha · 02-06-07, 09:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nakman

Your worn bearings and worn spindle was caused by lack of maintence and/or lack of knowing how to set the preload.. both easy to learn and cheap tools to get. hth.

As I don't know how to do this, what tools do I need and how/where do I learn?

ductape · 02-07-07, 09:59 AM

I can't use the old bearing as it was completely destroyed.

Seems like the new spindles are nice... I have to get new brass bushings anyways if I want to reuse my old spindles. Which seems to me like throwing money when I can get new spindles right away.

The guy is already going to use some speedy sleeves on the axle shafts, so I guess next repack it will be time for new birfields...

My truck is now at 176 K miles and probably never had a front axle service.

One interesting thing is that my axle seal was still in perfect shape, but the axle was moving so much that oil kept leaking anyways... worn brass bushings I guess, not keeping the axle shaft in place properly.

JF