88-98 C1500 2WD Spindle Engineering Question

[Dr G]

Something like this. It is possible to do it, but it does take time. I probibly have close to 30hrs design time, another $3-400 in material ( all 4140 ) and luckily I have a friend with a CNC, otherwise it would have been a ton to machine. All said and done, I'll bet your looking at $3000 to make a set.

Yes, that's the ticket there tin-man. A bolt-together spindle.



The 30 hours of design time should not be an issue for the average enthusiast. This is a hobby after all. Designing parts is supposed to be fun!

The cost, I'm not sure. You went with 4140, a great choice and a strong material, but expensive to machine. 15 years ago I owned a small company making brake parts for BMW M3's. I had a kit that adapted Porsche 996 monoblock calipers to M3 front ends and the adapter bracket was made from 4140. Heat treated after machining. Yet there were other companies selling similar brake kits where the adapter bracket was just made from CNC'd 6061-T6, and they suffered no ill effects that I ever heard of. So was I just being too cautious? Who knows. Neither I nor any of those any other companies did an FEA check (finite element analysis).

To wit, there are some very professional spindle kits on the market now in the Pro Touring arena where the steering arm is CNC aluminum. And even some where the whole spindle is aluminum. That would be a lot cheaper to machine. It would be more bulky though.



Not pooh-poohing your design at all, it looks great. Just trying to point out that there are times where steel is absolutely required for a part. Either because of absolute strength requirements. Or because there is not enough room for the extra space that an aluminum part would require. But I'm not sure a spindle is such a part. I think aluminum is a viable material for a spindle, and it would bring down machining costs quite a bit.