Steering knuckle spindle replacement?

[bredstein]

I have a 98 2wd Tahoe. On a recent couple hundred miles trip I heard a knocking sound of a bad bearing. The wheel had about 2 inches of play on any side, so I decided not to drive it anymore, and brought the truck home on a trailer. Today I took the hub off, found a bunch of debris, just as expected. The only problem I had was with the spindle nut. It was loose, although the cotton pin was OK. I removed the pin and started turning the nut, but it went harder and harder, and it looked like a damaged thread. Eventually, I took the nut off with an angle grinder And now I cannot find an answer - are these spindles replaceable? I see there are steering knuckles around but they don't have spindles, and there are also quite a few lowering spindles around. And I want to keep my Tahoe stock. So does anybody know what to do with a damaged spindle?

 

[SunlitComet]

spindle as in the hub bearing or axle shaft? all over the place in stores. If not, spindle is just the name typically used to describe the 2wd knuckle. Perhaps you are only searching the 4wd sub-sections of the sites you look at.

 

[bredstein]

spindle as in the hub bearing or axle shaft?

In the hub, the one that the bearings sit on.

spindle is just the name typically used to describe the 2wd knuckle.

Thanks fot telling. So it is one pieceI I mean, the actual spindle is not screwed in or inserted into the bigger part that connects to the arms and tie? Too bad, I hoped it would be a cheap fix :-(

 

[SunlitComet]

Don't think I have ever seen a spindle mounted to a separate knuckle before anywhere. That would be a bad weak point.

 

[kcb37]

So the spindle is the part the hub bolts to, and the part that is attached to the control arms by the ball joints.
What you are talking about is the drive axle/half shaft.
Little bit of money but not horrible.

 

[bredstein]

What you are talking about is the drive axle/half shaft.

Is it so? I have a 2WD.

 

[kcb37]

Makes sense now, I missed that before.
You might try lmctruck.com
Or even a junkyard.

LMC does have one, for $470.
I would go to a junkyard.

 

[bredstein]

LMC does have one, for $470.

I think I'd rather let them keep it... I wonder though where do all the stock spindles go after lifting/dropping? I am sure there are tons of them around for a much better price. I may try to post at my local craiglist...

 

[retorq]

I ran into the same thing you did but my fix was drop spindles.

If you don't want to spend money on the new ones there is always the junk yard. I wouldn't hesitate to use one of those if it wasn't bent ...