Cant find spindles.

[thelincolnguy]

I have a 1985 chevy c30 crew cab dually 6.2 diesel. i bought the truck with no front suspension in it and i cannot find where to buy spindles for the truck. i do not want drop spindles. im searching for a factory ride height replacement for a 1 ton truck. thanks- eric.

[Greybeard]

Should be a slew of them in the local salvage yard.

[thelincolnguy]

yea i tried but they want $75 for a really worn out one.

[Greybeard]

A worn out spindle?    I never knew that was possible. Broken, bent, or stripped threads yes, but worn out? How do you mean?

[thelincolnguy]

Like someone left the spindle nut loose sn ran it long enough to score up the shaft.

[Greybeard]

Depending on how bad the scoring is it may not matter. As long as the bearing fits and does not wobble around on the shaft it would be fine to clean them up and reuse them. The bearings, after all, do not ride on the shaft, the races do, so as long as the race fits reasonably solid it is good to use. If it does not fit solid, the next best way (although somewhat expensive) is to sleeve the shaft. This is rather difficult to do properly however and is a last ditch resort. I find it odd that your salvage yard cannot find any good spindles with their locator service though, $75 dollars is kinda high but it beats walking. 

[thelincolnguy]

Did not think about reconditioning them. Where could i go to do something like that? And yea our junkyard only deals in their own parts and they dont have a lot of older chevy stuff

[Greybeard]

Not certain there is anyplace other than your own garage to sleeve a spindle. In all honesty I have only seen it done once as a very last resort on a antique (and unusual) vehicle. Any model year spindle from that body series should work on the truck and don't quote this but both 3/4 ton and 1 ton may be the same part number. A 1/2 ton almost certainly will not be compatible. In addition, there may be some P-series that will work too. Maybe someone has a parts interchange book here? Overall, you need to find a better salvage yard. Plenty online resources. Stop at indie (pendent) repair shops and ask. A spindle is similar to a crankshaft in that they don't weather. They can sit in a mud puddle for years and still be usable. Deep gouges are nothing to be seriously concerned with, stripped threads are fixable sometimes too. Bent is one dis-qualifier. I don't think you will ever come across a bent spindle that is otherwise usable however. If the spindle bends it will most likely break at the same time...really good case hard steel (chilled or induction) does that. Anyway, if you haven't found any yet start surfing the web for salvage yards. Be patient because they are salvage yards not IT gurus. Calling back is not part of most salvage yards MO even though they always say they will. Good luck.

With a little searching I found that the inner and outer wheel bearings are used from 1971-1991. Now the only thing to do is find the compatibility of the ball joints, and steering components short of looking in a interchange manual.

[80Chevy4x4]

Shoot I would check out Ebay for that if the junkyard can't do anything.

[werewolfx13]

If push comes to shove, a good machine shop should be able to resurface your spindles. I had to have a spindle re done locally for a '76 louisville ford grain truck with a 12,000 lb front end...the outer wheel bearing froze up and got so hot it fused the inner race to the spindle. Notched the inner race all the way into the spindle on 4 sides, heated it glowing red, put a 7 ton puller on it, and had a pinch bar slid through the bumper and was beating on the back side and it wouldn't come off, had to torch the entire thing off and have it resurfaced. Cost $60 to have it welded up, and machined back down to the proper bearing surface diameters.

[Greybeard]

I agree, almost anything can be fixed, just a matter of how much you are willing to pay.