anyone know 3rd gen F body spindles?

[novaderrik]

i was just looking around under my newly acquired 86 Camaro, and noticed that the steering arm on the driver's side is about 1" farther inboard than the one on the passenger side. the tie rod on the passenger side is about 1/4" away from the wheel weight, but there is a gap of over 1" on the driver's side. the car drives perfectly straight and nothing looks bent- both wheels appear to have the same amount of toe in as you look down the side of the car..
is this normal?
both wheels are the same backspacing and diameter- i have 4 "rear" GTA wheels on the car. they are both the same distance from the strut.

[ArtosDracon]

That definitely is not right.

[AM.MSCL]

If you think there is something wrong then I would suggest trying to get the part numbers off the spindles and having a GM parts dealer look them up to find out for sure what they fit.
It does not sound normal to me that would be the case but I could not tell you for sure.

[Randy67]

Definitely not right, sounds like something is bent. The spindle is probably similar to the G-body one, and the steering arm is known for bending on them, especially in circle track racing. There is a brace offered to help keep them from bending, but I don't know if it works on 3rd gens.
http://www.speedwaymotors.com/AFCO-Spindle-Savers,26306.html

[Apogee]

The 3rd-gen F-body spindles are unique to that application due to the strut-type suspension. You could always measure your tie-rod lengths to confirm what your eyes are already telling you with respect to the steering arms being bent, which I'm pretty sure they are. Lucky for you, used spindles from a wrecking yard are usually dirt cheap. Unlucky for you, they typically have bent steering arms as well in my experience, so shop around and be selective.

Tobin
KORE3

[69T/AClone]

If you have 4 rear tire on the car you need to remove the front 2 and fide 2 front ones. The Cross lace wheels on the GTAs have 2 different offsets for tie rod clearance. you car 4 front wheels and be fine but not 4 rears

[novaderrik]

If you have 4 rear tire on the car you need to remove the front 2 and fide 2 front ones. The Cross lace wheels on the GTAs have 2 different offsets for tie rod clearance. you car 4 front wheels and be fine but not 4 rears

yes, i know about the different backspacing. the reason i have 4 rears on the car is because is had to buy 2 sets of GTA's to get 4 "fronts" to go on my 84 Regal. this set of rears have been laying around looking for a good home for 5 years.
but the wheels aren't the problem- they fit and clear everything beautifully except for that one wheel weight that needed to self clearance itself on the strut a little bit- the problem is the spindle. everything lines up visually- the alignment looks the same from side to side. the tie rods are arrow straight and don't look like they have ever been adjusted. with the steering wheels centered, the Pitman arm is straight back like it's supposed to be. the car drives beautifully. there are no signs of anything being bent on either spindle- there is a nice and uniform layer of dirty grease down the length of both of the steering arms. if anything gets bent, the grease will generally flake off where the bend occurs.
given all of this, if it did get bent, it got bent a loooong time ago.

[ArtosDracon]

The cross laces fit fine on the front of a third gen, they don't fit on the front of a fourth gen. Your spindle is bent. You should be able to get an alignment out of it fine, but it's going to throw off bump steer, turning and ackerman.

[novaderrik]

The cross laces fit fine on the front of a third gen, they don't fit on the front of a fourth gen. Your spindle is bent. You should be able to get an alignment out of it fine, but it's going to throw off bump steer, turning and ackerman.

i did notice today that it's a bit jerky in the front end when backing up on my paved driveway with the wheels turned all the way to full lock. the front tires kinda feel like they skip a little bit.
otherwise, it drives beautiful and isn't twitchy over big bumps or anything like that. i even drove it off onto the gravel shoulder of a highway at 60mph on purpose to see how it would affect the car, and it didn't cause it to go all bonkers or anything.
i'll live with it until i have extra $$$ to throw at fixing it.

[ArtosDracon]

Just check it for cracks periodically.