i am curently trying to get my rear spindels out so i can greese the rear wheel bearings and instsll new parking brake hardware. i bought the spindel knocker tool and tried to use that, didnt even budge the spindel. i then got out my front hub puller and installed that and that dont seem to be working either. ive looked up in the service manual and it says to use a press, tool j-22602 i dont have this tool :cry what other ideas do you have--or should i just get stronger and really slam that hub puller. i stop tonight befor really putting a lot of effort in to it in fear that i might damage somthing.

 

By spindle knocker tool I assume the one that screws on where the flange nut was. Get a bigger hammer and knock it out. I would for future polish the inner bearing mount for a slip fit. Never again will you have to deal with a stuck spindle.
Have someone chuck the axle in a lathe then use emery paper where the inner bearing sits to polish this area until the inner bearing just slides on with only a slight effort.
Tom's high performance axles advertise this. I have done it to my axles and have had them out a few times for inspection and the bearing is causing no problems with a slip fit.
Good luck and just hit harder. :cheers:

 

Norval is correct on one score. If you keep that knocker tool tight so it will not damage the threads, and knock hell out of it, you will get them out. However, on the slip fit bearings, I disagree. They started out in 63 with slip fit and the engineers determined that this wasnt a good idea so it was changed. We have kicked this one around many times here and I wont go into that again, but it is dangerous to make them slip fit.

 

I don't know where you got your information on 63's and slip fit bearings, because I have a very early 63 (2nd owner) and it does not have slip fit bearings. I learned this in 1969 when I had the bearings on the drivers’ side seize. It ruined everything except the carrier. The dealer repaired it for over $300 back then. The bearings had to be pressed out using a hydraulic press. This is the main reason why they are rarely serviced... until they fail that is.

They were originally pressed on because if you snapped the flange off the end of the axel, you would lose the wheel without the pressed on bearing with drum brakes. With the switch to disk brakes in 1965 this reason was no longer valid, the caliper will hold the wheel from coming off. But GM continued to press them on and needless to say this is the bane of these Corvettes.

In 1989 I purchased a used 1973 and the first thing I did was repack the rear wheel bearings. Using my fathers hydraulic press I pressed the bearings out. One side required 10 tons of pressure and the other required 30 tons of pressure to separate them. (We actually bent a 1 inch steel plate in the process.) While this may have been atypical, both sets of bearings were fine and after repacking them, they remain in the car to this day.

I personally agree with Norval regarding the slip fit on the bearings. I turned the axels down with emery cloth until I could install the bearings with nothing more than a rubber mallet and have had no problems in over 10,000 miles. I can take them apart with nothing but a rap on a wooden block.

I have had many discussions over the years with experts on the Corvette rear and there doesn’t seem to be a consensus on whether this is a sound move or not. Most simply say if they didn’t need to be pressed on GM would have stopped doing it long ago. To that I would just say, it worked for me.

GUSTO

 

I find it impossible to knock the spindle out while the trailing arm is still in the car. Not enough room to get a good wack at it. You gotta take the whole damn thing apart, lay the trailing arm on a couple of 4X4s on the ground and beat the ever living crap out of it with a sledge hammer to get the spindle out.

Major MAJOR pain in the donkey. Thats why the next time i do it i'm gonna slip fit inner and outer bearings. If my bearings go at the track, i wanna be able to replace them in an hour and get back out there so i don't blow a whole day and forfeit a bunch of expensive track time.

And frankly, I'm not worried in the least about the wheel falling off. Make sure the cotter pin is in and it ain't going nowhere. Even if it did i have enough feel for this car now to know when you have even a little bearing slop let alone the nut coming off. The brakes would immediately go to the floor and you know sometings up.




[Modified by turtlevette, 10:54 PM 3/23/2004]

 

slip fit inner and outer bearings


Turtlevette while I agree to inner slip fit bearings I can't say the same for outers. Once the inner is slip fit the axles comes out very easy but the outer leave alone. The spacer is free to rotate so with the outer and inner and sleeve free to rotate I would be afraid the bearings might start rotating on the axles. I know the nut forces everything onto the axle but I still would leave the outer alone.
That said on my homemade axle set I have fixed spacers and slip fit outer and inner but my setup is different.
Can't the carrier be removed from the trailing arm if you need a press? Mine can.

 

The spindle press tool might damage your caliper bracket too if it's that tight. I use a 20 ton press to remove them. I press both bearings on when I do them although I can see why the inner could be a slip fit. Where are you in NY? Are you near New Haven CT,if so I might be able to help.
Gary

 

Sorry but I don't agree w/the slip fit. Yes it easy to maintain your bearing assemblies, but honestly, there are not that many of you who are constantly tearing your rear bearings apart to service them and trying different things.

If you slip fit your bearings on the spindle and have a little play your pretty much SOL and out $ 150+ for a new spindle. Bad bearings cause the spindle to have to much play and that will give you bad run out and we all know bad run out cause air to get into the braking system.
Now your probably thinking, well the fronts are slip fits why doesn't that matter. This has to do w/the way the caliper is positioned on the assemblies. Fronts are positioned different than rears. If GM could have done the rears in a slip fit on the rears don't you think something would have changed w/in the 17years of production.
just my .02


[Modified by Van Steel, 7:40 AM 3/24/2004]

 

my argument has always been that the fronts are slip fit. Can you explain in more detail? The front caliper is mounted at 10 O clock and the rear at 1 O clock. I don't see how that makes any difference to the runout situation.