Rear Spindle Wear Questions

[RoadTrippin]

As part of safety checks for getting our GMC back on the road, taking the rear drums out to check bearing, seals, shoes etc.

Jacked up, with wheels on, no real side to side play, but some play at top and bottom. Get into it and see the PO used white lithium grease for the bearings, which is never good. Feeling the bottom of the spindles, there is some wear on a couple that I can feel in my fingers.

At what point do you feel a spindle replacement is warranted? The attached pic is the view from the bottom of one of them.

Thanks!!

 

[RoadTrippin]

Now that all 4 drums are off. I feel the wear on the bottom of the further rear spindles. Passenger side forward spindle has wear on top. Drivers side forward has no wear.

 

[tmsnyder]

Did the old bearings blow up? If not then I guess I wouldn't worry about it. Clean, repack bearings and install a fresh seal (leaving the seal 'proud' the thickness of a nickel) and install per the recent thread where we beat a dead horse into infinity.

 

[Keith V]

Wear on the spindles is a problem, there should be no wear there.
That means the bearing races were spinning or something.
Make sure they fit snugly esp the inner
That spindle looks great

clean and inspect the bearings, look for pits and bluing from high heat. if there smooth and shiny, yes repack and rock on.
If in doubt replace the bearings

 

[pvfjr]

I don't know, that spindle looks a little iffy to me.

@RoadTrippin do you have a micrometer?

I'm assuming your outer bearing was riding on the yellow highlighted area? Normally that would be machined the same as the pink highlighted area. There is no "stop" for the outer bearing, as it's the bearing race of the hub that limits the depth of the bearing. As such, the transition between the yellow and pink area should be subtle. Some degree of staining and texturing is normal, but material removal should be minimal. I'd be curious to get a bunch of micrometer measurements comparing the pink zone to the yellow zone and see what your differences really are. If it's too loose, the inner race of the outer bearing can rock on the spindle, meaning the inner and outer bearings will no longer be coaxial. That's not ideal.


I had a similar situation with my front hub. The portion where the bearing race rides was worn. It didn't look too bad on it's own, as shown below:



But when held against a good straight edge, a different perspective was offered. Of course in this application, this is supposed to be a press fit. So obviously it wasn't a press fit anymore, and required replacement. You can get away with some slop on spindles in the rear, but if there's too much I'd be concerned.

 

[Richard RV]

Feeling the bottom of the spindles, there is some wear on a couple that I can feel in my fingers.

At what point do you feel a spindle replacement is warranted?

Send Dave Lenzi the photos and ask him. He'll provide the minimum allowable micrometer spindle measurement and offer other sage inspection advice.

 

[RoadTrippin]

Thanks for the replies.

tmsnyder, Keith V, bearings looked surprisingly good considering all the white lithium. No pitting or burned up rollers/races. I bought an entire set of bearings including seals because I didnt know what I would find when I got the drums off. Definitely a couple of seals leaking.

pvfjr, Do not have a micrometer, but do have a small dial caliper that I may be able to some rudimentary measurements. Yes, bearing rides on the yellow area. From a feel test perspective, I feel a slight ridge right where pink and yellow meet, and only on the bottom of the spindle on two of them, on the top on one of them, not the entire circumference like your hub photo. I did not examine the inside of the bearing for these three as I got caught up in what was going on with the spindles. If theres damage, then this wear happened with these bearings, if no wear, then something in the past I would think. Unfortunately my GMC is an hour south and it will be a few days before I get back down there to check.

Richard RV, thanks, I will reach out to him.

I may have to put it back together for the time being as is with fresh grease and seals to be able to get it to move back up north closer to home. If Dave Lenzi suggests replacing them, it will be something I plan for in the near future. I imagine its going to require removing the bogey arm to press the spindle out unless a puller can be rigged up to push it out.

I may need to sacrifice a few beers to the bearing gods before I jack up the front and do the shake test with the front wheels.

 

[Bhart]

Bill Massy has the fixture to remove the spindles. Just pay for shipping both ways.