Trying to remove the rear spindle off the car. I tried beating it, made a tool to push it out, applied heat to the inner bearing, you name it, yet it will not budge! Anyone have any ideas I haven't thought of? I'm about ready to start in on destroying the spindle, but I obviously don't relish that thought!

 

I have never removed a spindle with it on the car....maybe you can try to remove the trailing arm and setup in a press it should come out that way.

 

I think you're already on that road. Without the specific tools and a bit of luck, not much chance of success. Sometimes a 50 ton press is required for stubborn bearing assemblies.

Why are you taking them apart?

 

this is what worked for me, from the inside of the car (half shaft end), remove all the hard ware so there's nothing holding the spindle in except the bearings. take a large 3 jaw bearing puller that has reversible jaws on it, turn the jaws around so the fingers are pointing out instead of in, hook the fingers onto the inner lip of the trailing arm, place the point of the center jack bolt in the end of the spindle and press it out that way. just be carefull and watch the area of the trailing arm where the jaws are located for bending. once you've put some pressure against the spindle, take a hammer and hit the outter end of the spindle (where the rim mounts), DON'T HIT THE RING THAT CENTERS THE RIM ON THE SPINDLE, THEY ARE A CLOSE FIT ANYWAYS, you don't want to bugger up that area.

the combination of pressure and impact should pop it loose.

 

Thanks for the help guys. The trailing arms are off the car, not still on. I am doing a complete restoration, so I wanted to go through both sides and fresh them up, plus the backing plate and TA bushings are shot. I have a small HF press, but can't figure out an easy way to mock the thing up to press it out. Has anyone developed a means for putting these assembly's in the press?

 

you can use the same procedure I mentioned above while they are off the car, in fact, that's how I did mine.

 

2 lengths of threaded rod through opposing holes in the spindle support. You have to rig it up to the press... you need more than just the rod... improvise assembly hanging down below the press plate. It's tricky. I started out with the 12T HF press but graduated to the 20T press. Some of them didn't budge with the 12T.

 

Okay all, I took bits and pieces of all the different ideas and got it in the press (had to make a few parts to hold it) and got it out! Thank goodness! It took every pound of that little presses 12 tons, but it came out, albeit begrudgingly! Car is a 1979 and I guess after 34 years it thought it was there to stay. Thanks for the help everyone, I appreciate all my Corvette brothers!

 

I'm assuming you used some steel plate, drilled holes for the rod. What thicknesss plate did you use? I have the 12 ton press and need to rebuild my bearing assembly.

 

So, I decided to try and press out the spindle with the HF 12-Ton Press. In order to set it up, I needed to get some steel plate to hang the spindle support below the press's shelf.

I went to the local steel supplier and bought 2, 1/2" x 6" steel plates with a 1" inch hole already cut in the middle (These are some sort of heavy duty "washer" and they sell them by the pound. Cost: $16.44 for both. I also bought 4 3/8x6" grade 8 bolts and nuts. I also bought a 3/4" grade 8 bolt to fit through the steel plates and do the pressing.

I drilled the 4 holes through the steel plates using the control arm w/ the bolts attached as a template. This was the longest part, took about an hour.

Set up the press with the spindle and slowly started putting on the pressure. I also put two folded rugs under the press to catch the spindle.

I compressed it until it felt like there was a lot of resistance. The spindle didn't budge. I tapped the spindle support a few times and applied a heat gun for about 5 minutes around the inner bearing housing. I let it sit another 10 minutes. Came back an pumped it two more times ... it was hard to pump. The handle provided for the jack is only about a foot long (I suspect to limit the pressure). IT POPPED OUT with a bang ... SUCCESS!!!!! I'll repeat the process for the right side spindle next week sometime.

I have the pictures in my project thread "Small Garage Restoration"
in the C3 General section.

 

Now that you got it apart, have you thought about putting it back together with new bearings?

You really need a shaft that allows you to place the near brgs, sleeve and shims together without having to press on the brgs so that you can check the stacked up play and get the right thickness of shim. Don't assume that the new brgs are exactly the same width as the old ones.

The vendors sell a shaft type of tool for this. No grease, just a bit of light oil. I got new thicker shims, measured, then had the shims ground down at a machine shop. Manual says 0.008 play but a qualified builder will get down to 0.001 or 0.0015. I set it up with 0.0013.

Once you have this, then pack the brg with grease and press on the brgs.

Lots of info on the web with pix.

Don't just throw it together without going thru this.

Steve L.

 

I once had my 1980 when it was nearly new in a local Chevrolet Dealership with bad Spindle Bearing. They called me back and said that they were going to crush the Spindle getting it out as it wouldn't budge and it would be a week or more till they could get a new one. I asked a local Corvette Body shop I knew and they said they could have it apart in 10 minutes. They got out the Cutting Torch and had it apart in no time by cutting the Bearings and not using any Press or Pullers at all.

 

I will be buying the spindle/bearing setup tool. I have everything else ... except the parts (yet). I still need to pull the other side apart and then examine everthing real close to make sure nothing is damaged.

 

You'd think that if the vendors are selling spindle set up tools, they would also sell a set-up for placing the spindle on a press. I had to make my own using 4 inch angle iron.

 

I would highly advise having the spindle indexed to make sure it is not damaged BEFORE you go and re-use it. I have run into numerous spindles that when I index them...the flange surface for the rotor is out as much as .020" in some cases which makes it completely useless. The spindle shaft may index perfect...but the flange surface is way out of being perpendicular. So basically you have a "wobbly" rotor. The spindle should be .000" to .0015". This is so when you go and index the run-out on your rotor after you have it all assembled...you are not out of spec and have issues with your brakes due to the run-out being so out-of whack. A little bit of warp in the flange equates to a lot at the end of the rotor.

DUB

 

I'm learning a lot as I rebuild my covertte ... how is a spindle "indexed".

 

Get a dial indicator, magnetic stand with it's mounting shafts. Stick it onto an appropiate spot where the indicator reading shaft can be placed purpendicular to the spindle mount shaft, preferable near the circumferance. Also chose a place where there is the least amount of bumps on the surface. Now spin the shaft, You can mark the low point and the high point to see if it is repeatable. The difference is your run-out or "wobble" Your readings may jump a lot depending on how much surface imperfection you have. You should probably clean up the surface with a wire wheel first.

 

Should I have done this before I pressed the spindle out of the spindle support? I'm not sure how I spin the shaft when it is out of the spindle support.

TOMMY1727: I don't want to hi-jack your thread ... should I move the spindle indexing discussion to another thread?

 

Every factory spindle has runout like Dub says. The average amount is
.004-.007 if it hasn't been damaged. Using washers to true up the rotors only bends the spindle further. A minor impact will bend the face but a harder impact like sliding into a curb will bend it between the bearings. I've machined hundreds of vettes spindles and about 1/4 of them are damaged beyond saving.
Mike

 

If you're not installing a new rotor and are careful to install the original rotor back in it's original position there's little to worry about.

The spindle faces or front hub faces were not machined true in the first place, that operation was done after the rotor was installed and riveted.