Got a problem trying to remove the rear spindle. To this point I've removed the inner spindle flange & nut, removed the disc rotor. I put the gear puller arms connected on the inside flange of the torque control arm with an 8" puller and all it does is bend out the flange on the the torque control arm. Iv'e even tapped with a 3 pound sledge on the center of the outer spindle between the lug bolts with pressure from the puller applied, but still no movement. I need some advice on where to go from here. Thanks!P.S. The reason I'm trying to remove the rear spindle is due to a noisy rear wheel bearing on the passenger rear. :smash:

 

It works best if you could get a press to push it out evenly or if it is not too tight you can use a spindel knocker that threads on to the side where you took the nut off and then :smash: it.

 

I had a similar situation when trying to take mine apart. I remember having to buy a long piece of threaded rod and cuting it into 4 pieces. I think I used part of the old puller that broke trying to get it apart and a steel plate. I remember using nuts on the threaded rod to tighten and pull everything apart. Sorry I can't be more specific, but take a look and see if you can figure out what I was doing. Hope this helps. :)

 

I watched mine being done by a professional Vette shop (Bair's).
They took a piece of threaded pipe with a large nut welded onto the end and screwed it onto the inner threads of the spindle. Then they took a big ol hammer and pounded it out. Took all of 2 minutes. :smash:

Stew

 

Couple of thoughts here, if you hammered the threads of the spindle and it didn't move then you'll have to be sure you didn't wreck the threads. I just did this job and have the tools shown in the books. If yours is that tight then even the spindle press may not remove it, you could break the caliper bracket or distort the trailing arm. What I did was remove the Trailing arms to rebuild them on a workbench.
If you have the rotor off and the strut rods separated then you need to remove the parking brakes and then the 4 nuts on the backing plate(dust sheild)then you should be able to tap the spindle assembly out of the trailing arm. With the spindle assembly out I used a 20 ton press to remove the spindle. I threaded the spindle knocker on the spindle to protect the threads and it required a good amount of force to pop it out. You will then have the outer bearing still pressed on the spindle. You may be able to get a bearing seperator on it but most likely not. There is a special puller made to remove the outer bearing and it works very well. Mid America used to have a tool loaner program but I don't deal with them so I don't know if it's still in effect.
You can do this job but you will need to have the tools. You'll need to make up a fixture to hold the spindle housing and a setup tool for setting the end play of the bearings. If you think you're going to go ahead with this then let us know and we can walk you through it. If you're just going to do one vette then it's not worth buying the tools- send them to Bair's.The tool cost will be more then Bair's cost. If you like to do it yourself, like many of us here, then give it a shot. Hopefully nothing was damaged so far, if so then you did no worse then a chevy dealer would have done. :smash: :smash: :smash:
Gary

 

I bought that tool that removes the outer race from International Axle - sold through CC. I did remove some pretty stuck races. The tool wasn't exactly hceap at around $100 bucks, but it did the trick. A cheaper way I found was to cut them off with a cutting disk. First cut the cage and let the bearings fall out. Then cut a slit lengthwise on the race. When you get close to cutting all the way through itm stop before hitting the spindle and crack the race using a chisel and hammer. Hammer the chisel into the slit you just made. Tons cheaper and didn't take very long.

 

i removed the bearing assembly from the trailing arms. covered the wheel studs with old lug nuts. clamped it in my vise, and used a rented 9 inch gear puller from O'Reillys to pop the spindle out. i used the old castle nut to protect the threads(new castle nuts are recommended anyway on re-assembly in most manuals). i then tapped the outer bearing off with about 3 different chisels. you want to be careful if you do it this way. don't get to "rammy",you don't want to damage the spindle. it will take about 45 minutes of tapping to get if all the way off the shaft. set my tolerance at .003",been about 4 yrs and 5000+ miles ago. good luck!

 

I had similar problems when I went through my rearend. I ended up pulling the spindle assembly off and putting it on a hyd. press. Took 38 tons to press it out.!!!! But be carefull....do it right...I also ended up with a broken caliper bracket and bent up brake shield. Oh and the spindle was toast do to the excesive heat that welded the bearing race to the spindle....That was do to 25 years of neglect from the other owners. :eek: Anyhow. Take your time and do it right. Well worth the efforts later!!!

 

Of the few tech sessions I've attended on this, they had the arm off the car, in a jig of some sort, then gave it one or two blows with that "spindle knocker" screwed onto the spindle. The caliper flange can also be bent if you're trying to use it for leverage. The ultimate thing to do, and I've done three of my C3s this way and that is to remove the "spindle carrier" from the trailing arm and take or send it to Bair's. They charge $150 per side providing everything is "servicable". It comes back to you looking NOS, with all new bearings, seal, backing plate,etc. As GTR stated, it's worth it in the long run to let the pros handle this.

 

This is NOT an easy job, and not a job done easily on the car. Trying to bang the spindle out is tough if not impossible. Best to remove the T arm and have it pressed out, or you'll be beating on it for weeks. Some shops around here use a burning torch to cut the bearing race, but they wouldn't try that on any of my cars. I'd advise you to stop, minimize the damage, bite the bullet, and pull the trailing arm. You probably should pull the other arm too. :) Hope this helps. Chuck

 

Hi Chuck I believe the method you might be referring when using a torch. Is actually very common and it doesn't cause any problems. You really only heat the race till it gets a little red then you smack it with a hammer because the bearing race is so brittle it just snaps or splits and you slide it off. The process looks bad but it puts no more heat on the axle shaft than if you had a really bad bearing. I've seen bad bearing heat damage worse than the old mechanics way of removing a seized race. Much Like a root cannal looks to the average person :D :D