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View Full Version : G-body spindle strength



Crossupbill
05-20-2008, 06:57 PM
Hello all, just wanted to pose a question to you all. After reading about how weak the first gen camaro spindles are I am a bit concerned. I am building a 1979 malibu and was wondering about the strenght of these. The camaro spindle is forged and the malibu spindle is cast, conventional wisdom says that the camaro spindle would be stronger and now you see my delema. Is this going to be an issue for me or is there some other reason why I should not worry about it?

Thanks,
Ryan

Chewy72ss
05-20-2008, 07:34 PM
I think it depends a lot on what you plan on doing with the car. If you just want the pro-tour "look", you should be fine. If you're gonna be hardcore auto-x with it, then you might want to upgrade.

Wheel offset is a big factor in how much stress is put on the spindle, also.

I'm sure others will throw their $0.02 in with success/horror stories.

Crossupbill
05-21-2008, 01:05 AM
Well mainly what I am wanting to do is everything. A little drag racing, capable of hitting the road course from time to time, auto X some, etc. Like I said a little of everything. I know that the best thing would be the AFX spindle but it would kill me to give that much for a set of spindles and then 150-175 more for the steering arms. Just trying to avoid all that expense if I can.

Marcus SC&C
05-21-2008, 08:18 AM
The G spindles are strong enough for their original intended use. We have clients racing on them and they`re holding up fine too but in circle track they`re known to be a little on the weak side. The good thing is that they usually just bend a little rather than failing outright. Several manufacturers sell bolt on steering arm braces for them which should tell you something about them too. Bottom line,for 90% of all uses they`re strong enough.
Their big problem isn`t strength,it`s that in relation to the vehicles they`re used on they`re much too short,have steering arms too long for proper ackerman and too low for best bumpsteer,small wheel bearings and they`re difficult to properly mount good modern brakes to. We can wring a LOT better performance out of the G spindles with a Stage 2 package but if you`re really serious loose them for the tall AFX spindles and arms and it`ll be by far the best money you ever spent on the car. The radically improved geometry/performance alone is worth the price but the ability to easily/cheaply upgrade to C6/C6 Vette brakes is a huge perk and the improved ackerman and quicker steering ratio are icing on the cake. :twothumbs BTW feel free to call and take advantage of our free Suspension Counseling Service. Mark SC&C

Norm Peterson
05-21-2008, 10:56 AM
I can vouch for the strength of G spindles at least up to what you can dish out to them at auto-X on reasonably grippy pure street tires, and they're *probably* good enough for use with so-called "ST*" rubber (Falken Azenis, Yoko Neovas, and similar). Some of the lots I ran at were definitely less than smooth, so there's obviously some margin. I can't speak for an all-iron big-block fully optioned car on "R-compounds" or better, as I was running a SBC at ~3450 lbs curb weight. These spindles will bend if you happen to curb a wheel partly/mostly sideways (even at <5 mph on ice never mind how I happen to know this) , so I'd think twice about climbing over FIA curbings on any regular basis.


Norm