Bad spindle?

[drewvair]

Was washing the car today and decided to shake the tires to check for slop. Pulled the front pass bearings off and found a lip on the spindle where the bearing rests. I would assume the ridge is not supposed to be there but wanted to confirm with you guys. Assuming it’s not, is there anything I can do with it or do I need to look for a new spindle? Take a look:

Sent from my iPhone using Corvair Forum mobile app

[Wagon Master]

Unfortunately you're looking at a new/good used spindle.

[azdave]

Inspect the other side too while you are at it. You'll probably find it is okay and also know what a normal spindle should look like. Here is a pic of a 64 front spindle (aka steering knuckle).

[terribleted]

WOW that one is really bad. I have never seen a spindle worn that far. Looks like someone operated it with a frozen bearing spinning the inner race for a while and then just stuck new bearings (and maybe a hub assy) on it and let it ride, Inspect the hub well before installing good spindle and new wheel bearings.

[joelsplace]

Buy Timken bearings and not Chinese.

[azdave]

Reminds me of my earliest days driving a Corvair in high school. I hit a really bad pothole while driving my grandma's 65 Corsa. It was making some scraping noises after that so I pulled over immediately and found a pay phone to call my dad. He came to the rescue and saw the tire leaning a little oddly. He kicked it a few times to see if it wiggled and the whole tire/wheel/hub tipped way out and the car fell on it. It had snapped clean off at the inner bearing shoulder. Only the brake shoes had been holding the drum in place the last few feet I had driven.

[drewvair]

Thanks guys. I think you are probably spot on terribleted. I keep finding things the PO did that make me go hmmm. It did have very fresh grease in it so that leads be to believe he knew what was going on. I am going to tear down the other side as well and see if anything hokey is going on there, too.

[terribleted]

Thanks guys. I think you are probably spot on terribleted. I keep finding things the PO did that make me go hmmm. It did have very fresh grease in it so that leads be to believe he knew what was going on. I am going to tear down the other side as well and see if anything hokey is going on there, too.

You just never know. An awful lot of stuff gets done to these cars out of simple ignorance as well. Well meaning people who do not know any better make some really messed up repairs sometimes. There are also a lot of general mechanics that do not know Corvairs and do not really want to work on them, who either make errors (again Corvair ignorance) or rig things back together because they do not know where to get parts or do not want this old car taking up paying shop space waiting for parts etc..

[azdave]

I bought a local Corvair off Craigslist a few year ago. Test drove it first and it seemed like any old Corvair with loose steering but it tracked straight and stopped straight so I drove it home which was about a 20-mile trip. A few days later, I discovered 5-minute epoxy was used to fill the space where the Pitman arm bushing should have been and no cotter pin was used on the finger-tight castle nut. It was all spray painted flat black to hide the shoddy repair job so I missed it when I was doing a quick inspection.

[drewvair]

Oh, in my brief conversation with the PO, he seemed to think he was a Corvair expert. I have over $15k in receipts he gave me, most of them from Clark’s. Not that it means anything, though. The first clue was the stripped valve cover bolts, which he tried to use thread sealer and then a cork gasket with a tube of black RTV on an aluminum cover.


Sent from my iPhone using Corvair Forum mobile app

[bbodie52]

Bad mechanics can happen in professional shops too! When I was 17 (in 1970) my father took our 1965 Corvair Corsa to the local Chevrolet dealership in San Jose, California for a front and rear suspension wheel alignment. The job was completed and about a week later I was under the rear of the car performing some other maintenance. I happened to be looking up at the front of the transmission and discovered one bolt unscrewed with only a few threads still in the transmission. Another bolt on the other side was still screwed into the transmission (only finger tight), and the remaining 2 bolts were completely missing (likely left off or vibrated loose and fell on the ground somewhere).

1965 Corvair Front Transaxle Mount

Early Corvairs (1960-1964) have the rear suspension toe-in adjusted by loosening the four transmission mount bolts and adding/removing metal shims. When the rear suspension was completely redesigned in 1965, the toe-in was adjusted differently by adjusting the position of the left and right torque control arms in relation to the body (toe-in) and the position of the transaxle to the torque control arms by rotating the left and right cam assemblies in the torque control arms to adjust the camber (which is not adjustable on 1960-1964 Corvairs on the rear suspension).

I can only guess that a mechanic who was familiar with early Corvair toe-in adjustment (with shims) loosened the transmission mount bolts to add/remove shims, only to discover that there were no shims between the mounting bracket and the transmission. He probably then checked the 1965 shop manual and discovered the different procedure. However, he likely forgot to re-tighten the transmission mounting bolts and left them loose! I'm not sure just exactly what would have happened if the last remaining bolt had fallen out or sheared off and the front of the transaxle fell toward the ground while the car was being driven.

1965-1969 Camber and Toe-in Adjustment


EM Rear Toe-inPutin or take out shims, as needed! (Thanks to Vladimir Putin)