Were 60's Chevelle front wheel spindles heat-treated?

[HerkyJim]

Greetings gentlemen,

I frequent a Chevelles automobile enthusiast forum, and it seems that one of the posters there installed some offshore-sourced aftermarket spindles and ball joints on his Chevelle; an ensuing failure was blamed on an incorrect taper in the spindle's ball joint attachment point. The poster says that the supplier simply reamed the holes in the subject spindles to the correct size and shape and supplied more ball joints and now all is well.

I would have thought that these would be heat-treated and reaming wouldn't be feasible, but I don't know. Thanks, Jim.

 

[Bribyk]

I know it's common to ream the steering arm hole taper on '70's & '80's GM 4x4s to upgrade to bigger tie rod ends and better steering linkage. The steering arm and knuckle are one cast piece on these live axle vehicles.

 

[Tony71502]

I don't think the spindles are heat treated. They can definitely be reamed or modified by other means. The common, cheap method of converting from drum to disc brakes requires shaving off a fraction of an inch near the top of the spindle where the backing plate bolt hole is.

Anthony Deramo
Structural Engineering Student

 

[LionelHutz]

I beleive they are a 2-piece design. A cast knuckle and a pressed-in steel pin the wheel mounts to. So, the knuckle is easy to do some machinine work on.

I remember the issue posted probably a few years ago on chevelles.com. There were pictures of the pieces mated together using dye that showed that the spindle and ball joint taper did not match. I believe it was Marcus at SC&C who went above and beyond to test components and determine what the problem was.

Peter

 

[dadof275103]

They are a two piece design. I made several trailer axles by cutting the knuckle with a band saw to the edge on the spindle. Then you can press out the spindle. Many would slide out by hand. We did this where the GM people could use the car spare on the trailer if needed. Most trailers are made with a Ford or Mopar bolt pattern (5 X 4 1/2).

dad/Michael