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Spindle up-grade for a 60

JeffHK5

JeffHK5

1/2 ton status
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I started a beef-up project on my GM style 60 today , ya'know Superior axles, Longfield joints and a home-brew floating disc brake setup.

Well I found my first badly worn part , a pass. side inner spindle bearing went south and took a spindle with it. It must have been on it's way to locking up when it came from my donor truck.

I thought while I have my wife's approval to sink some cash into my diff I would up-grade my spindles also.

Do any of the aftermarket companies offer a spindle made out of a stronger steel?

It seems to me that the front spindles take a ton of abuse yet get little talk about upgrading, or is what GM offers as good as it gets?

Thanks, Jeff
 
What did the bering do to the spindel when it broke? I just had one do that on a buddys F150 that I worked on and is what happened is the middel part of the bering that rides on the spindel welded itself to the spindel and the rest of the bering came apart and I lerned a new way to fix the spindel.Is this what happened to yours?????
 
The bearing was just starting to lock up and looks as though it might have spun a couple times. It was not to the point of turning blue but it damaged
the spindle nonetheless. But to answer your question , yes, the bearing land is shot.

Jeff
 
Well if the round inside of the bering is stuck on the spindel then weld a hefty bead all the way around the thingy then pound it off.Works every time it gets hot all the way around and expands then can be pounded off .

Weld only,,no tourch.
 
But when you get the inner bearing race off is the spindle all melted and screwed up . I had no problem getting the bearing off, it's whats under the bearing that was bad!

Jeff
 
When a bearing starts to lock up it will ether spin the inner race on the spindle or the outer race in the hub. My bearing never completely failed it just spun enough times to "waller" out the inner bearing race and wear down the spindle maybe .005.
Now when I put a new inner bearing on it is loose, which I know will never last.

I tried to take pics. of it and it does not show up in the photos. It can be felt with a finger nail and measured with a calipers.

Jeff
 
No, there are no aftermarket spindles. I have never heard of a stock spindle failure except for spun bearings, which would ruin any spindle.
 
i havent heard anything about upgraded spindles... it seems that as long as everything is in good condition then there should never be a problem. with proper maintance over the life of the axle that should of never happened. Oh and when talking to a ford guy, i found it help to talk slower with smaller words, diagrams help too:D j/k man
 
My dually 60 came out of a rail yard service rig and judging by the rest of the truck it got little up-keep. I did however get the whole 454/465/60/14 with 4:56 gears for $400 which made it worthwhile.

I can't believe that there are no aftermarket companies making a part that takes that much of a beat'n, must be the only part that's left stock on all those tube buggies.

Jeff
 
ANY spindle that has had a bearing spin on it and damage the land can be repaired as long as the worn land is not too deep and has not blued the spindle. its called Thermal Coating or Plasma Spray. that is exactly why it was invented many years ago. for repair of worn or damaged surfaces and or to improve a new parts performance and extend its working life. its not a cheap process, mostly used in the aerospace and aircraft industries. there are some Thermal spray shops that do comercial work though.

thats what we do at the company i work for, we are a thermal coatings shop. the process basically starts by premachining or pregrinding a part undersize or oversize depending on ID or OD, then degrease the part in a very expensive degreaser,($250.000.00, yes a quarter million dollers) then grit blasting the area to be coated to obtain the required surface roughness then coat the part then finish machine or grind the part back to size, holding blue print tollerances.

i did my spindles on my D60 cause they had spun bearings. we used a coating so hard that it will NEVER! wear out. our coatings expert with over 30 yrs coating expeirence said he put THAT coating on my spindles cause they were running a job spraying that coating so he had the technician spray my spindles too. he said for the application the coating was WAY overkill. he said he could have put a lot softer but yet still harder then the spindle coating that would have been fine. he just said your kids grand children will be using your spindles on there truck someday.

the coating im talking about was put through a destructive test for 4 months by BOEING AEROSPACE DIVISION that does there testing. thay through everything at it, 1000 hrs of corosive salt and acid solutions hi volicity grit blast for countless hours, mant hours in etching solutions. all kinds of things to deteriorate the coating, that found NO measurable to the tenth loss of tollerance. thats insane! coatings dont handle impact well, some better then others but they were designed for wear resistence. needless to say we do ALOT of parts for Boeing.
 
Yep , I going to ditch those giant swedge style calipers for some 3/4 ton bolt ons or maybe some aftermarket Wilwood full floaters . Before I went with 1 ton diffs my Dana 44 stopped my 39" Boggers just fine and they are much more trail friendly!


rdn2blazer, are you offering to fix my spindles, thanx , just PM me your address and I'll get them headed your way!!!!.....LOL.

I also work in a aerospace plant and had considered Plasma spray or a hard chrome as a repair option. I was looking to upgrade if possible but repairing the old ones still might be my best bet.

Thanks, Jeff
 
JeffHK5 said:
Yep , I going to ditch those giant swedge style calipers for some 3/4 ton bolt ons or maybe some aftermarket Wilwood full floaters . Before I went with 1 ton diffs my Dana 44 stopped my 39" Boggers just fine and they are much more trail friendly!
Click to expand...


just wondering, thanks
 
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