Dropped Spindle Broke 1986 C10

[hillsmith]

So I spend the day on my truck which has been in dry storage for years, Did a brake job, tune up, changed all the fluids etc. A few test drives getting the TV Cable adjusted and finaly its a driver again. So backing out of my driveway the front spindle breaks and locks up the tire. I live on a private drive so no big deal and was able to repair it but having a spindle just shear off has me pretty concerned about what to replace them with???
Is this just a fluke deal or has this been an issue? A search turned up nothing. I am feeling pretty lucky today that this happened while not moving in my driveway. I can imagine the damage had this happened on the freeway.

[hillsmith]

Damage Photos

[slammed79]

Thats crazy! I've never had that happen on 8 or 9 lowered vehicles. I'd call it a fluke.

[zieg85]

If it were me I would replace both.  Fluke or not that is bad steel IMO...

[hillsmith]

I am replacing both spindles for sure, in fact this may be the time to swap out the whole front end for a Scots or Porterbuilt style since I never liked the way this truck rode or sat anyways. I put a stock spindle back on it for today and its parked until I sort out which way to go.

[454Man]

Out of curiosity what size wheels were on?

[hillsmith]

Out of curiosity what size wheels were on?

PS Engineering 17X7

[bd]

That looks like ductile fracturing (stretching distortion of metal grains as opposed to simple breakage).  From your images, the crack appears to have grown gradually to ~20% through, before catastrophic failure occurred.  Can you tell if the radius limb had a smooth transition or a sharp termination where it met the small diameter of the spindle prior to fracturing?  Do you see any inclusions or tiny voids in the fracture surfaces?

[hillsmith]

That looks like ductile fracturing (stretching distortion of metal grains as opposed to simple breakage).  From your images, the crack appears to have grown gradually to ~20% through, before catastrophic failure occurred.  Can you tell if the radius limb had a smooth transition or a sharp termination where it met the small diameter of the spindle prior to fracturing?  Do you see any inclusions or tiny voids in the fracture surfaces?

There is a sharp termination at the taper which may have contributed to the location of the break. There does not appear to be any other visible flaws in the surrounding metal. Looks like poor metal quality or a lack of heat treating or hardening on the manufacturers part.

[bd]

I've read that Bullett was distributed by AIM.  There's no historical record of complaints or failures that I could find either, so likely just a fluke or part of a limited bad batch.