Minor problem became large with McGaughy spindle

[BigPoser]

So in my last post I had described that I had to grind down the machined area on the spindle where the caliper bolts screw into. We tonight, after having to grind down more from last night, I discovered that the lower caliper bolt wouldn't make all the way through to the other side because it was hitting......the spindle.

So, I had to remove the rotor and bearings again and grind yet a different part of the spindle. I'll have to figure out how to post pictures, but I will certainly do so. I'll also be calling and emailing McGaughy's regarding this issue.

I was able to make it work, but such a pain in the ass. I've installed many sets of spindles from various companies, but NEVER had to go through this. Completely ridiculous. Sorry for the vent, but I had to get it off my chest.

Anyone have any experience like this before? Any thoughts as to what I should do?

Thanks in advance.

Brandon

 

[J Knight]

Im really curious as to why you had to grind any part if the spindles. Did they by chance send you the wrong spindles? Mine needed absolutely no modifications on my 82 chevy with 1in rotors and 15x6.5(4.25in bs) rallys. My neighbor didnt have any issues either on his 85 GMC with 15x8(4in bs) torque thrust or the 20x8.5 (5.25in bs).

 

[BigPoser]

Im really curious as to why you had to grind any part if the spindles. Did they by chance send you the wrong spindles? Mine needed absolutely no modifications on my 82 chevy with 1in rotors and 15x6.5(4.25in bs) rallys. My neighbor didnt have any issues either on his 85 GMC with 15x8(4in bs) torque thrust or the 20x8.5 (5.25in bs).

Let's see if this works. The first pic is the flange on the inside of the spindle where the caliper bolt threads into. Possibly because I was using new rotors and new pads?

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This is what I had to grind it down to in order to make it work. I tried several times to make it work with less too. No luck.

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Here is the outer portion of the spindle. You can see the inside threaded area. The bolt has to pass where I ground off in order to make it in the mounting hole on the outside of the caliper. It was off by a little over an 1/8". Crazy I know. But there was no way it was going to make it.

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I've done several spindle installs and never had to go through anything like this before. These are the correct spindles for 1.25" rotors. Definitely frustrating.

 

[J Knight]

Makes me wonder if they drilled the caliper bolt holes off by 1/8in...

 

[BigPoser]

I think that the hole was in the right spot, but maybe it was canted a little bit or something. Once I ground off that portion, the bolt went right where it was supposed to go. I didn't have the same issues with the other side, except I had to grind off the tabs on the threaded side.

 

[DoubleDingo]

Makes me wonder if they drilled the caliper bolt holes off by 1/8in...

That's what I was thinking too.

 

[J Knight]

Do you think the parts store could have given you the wrong calipers or rotors?

Fwiw...my 78 has CPP drop spindles for 1.25in rotors with no issues.

 

[BigPoser]

Do you think the parts store could have given you the wrong calipers or rotors?

Fwiw...my 78 has CPP drop spindles for 1.25in rotors with no issues.

That was what I thought originally but after double checking all the part numbers, they were right. The calipers are original, but the rotors, pads and spindles are new.


I emailed McGaughy's and sent them the pics. At the very least they are aware of the situation.

 

[smoothandlow84]

Problem is that they tend to outsource for the castings overseas like most others including belltech. These manufacturers, trying to save a few bucks end up with sub par manufacturing. Sucks for all us end users. We pay for quality, shop for quality and end up having to re-engineer a product that should have been made correctly in the first place. Frustrating. ..very frustrating. I would hope that they reply back with some type of refund, or at the least acknowledge the problem and commend you for bringing it to their attention.

 

[MHarvey]

I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one that had big problems with the McGaughy's stuff. I contacted them and sent them pics over the same issue over a year ago. Looks like they just don't care about trying to fix the issue, and keep on screwing the end user. For what it's worth, I knew a couple of people who bought their spindles for the 1" rotors and didn't have any problems, but mine are also for 1 1/4". Hope you don't have the other problem I'm having, and that is that on one spindle, the wheel is sitting in over 1/4" farther than the other side. This wouldn't be a problem except for the fact that this makes the stock rally wheel hit the tie rod end. I think J Knight may remember my post over on Squarebody about this problem. Originally, I didn't have the engine and trans in the chassis, so I thought that might fix the problem, just by the weight and how it would settle the front end down. Now the entire drivetrain is in, and the cab is sitting back on it, but the issue is still there. I did some checking and measurements on the spindles, and the bearing surfaces are machined differently from one another, which causes the rotor on one side to sit a little over 1/4" farther in than the other side, which in turn makes the wheel sit farther in. This would've been fine, I guess, if I was running larger wheels, but I had 8 stock rallies that I planned on using and 4 have brand new tires on them. I'm still wiring everything up, but just to roll it around the shop, I had to stick a 5/16" wheel spacer on the one side to get the wheel off of the tie rod end, but couldn't drive it this way as that only leaves 3-4 threads of engagement on the studs for the wheel. I spoke with McGaughys tech, sent pics, etc. and they basically offered nothing in return aside from telling me that I must be doing something wrong. I'll admit that could happen, but I'm 43 years old, have worked on hundreds of vehicles over the years, and have never seen a problem like this. That added to the fact that one side is fine and the other had to be ground up to get the caliper on tells me it's not on my end. Funny thing is, the side I had to grind to get the caliper on is NOT the side that is sitting in too far. Sounds like their outsourced machining problems are my headache.

 

[J Knight]

Yes sir MHarvey, I do remember. I would recommend getting some CPP spindles for 1.25 rotors. I put a set of those on my 78 with zero issues.

 

[MHarvey]

Thanks for the advice JKnight. I'm hoping to get this thing at least fired up in the next couple of weeks, then it will be time to save up for paint. Sometime during that process, before its road worthy again, I'll be changing spindles to eliminate the problem. It just sucks that I bought what I thought was a reputable company's product , just to have it be junk and a waste of money.

 

[mistaake]

At the very least they should send you a new replacement set clearly the product is defective. That is just plain lousy customer service. They must know this is a problem to the point at which it's more cost effective to just blow you off than to send you new parts. If this was a rare manufacturing flaw they should have no reason not to make you a happy customer and give you what you paid for.

Thank you for the heads up and a mental note never to buy their products. Companies like this don't deserve customers' hard earned money and should go out of business. You're not expecting free **** beyond what you ordered - just to get what you paid good money for.

 

[smoothandlow84]

^^^^^ x2.

 

[J Knight]

Thanks for the advice JKnight. I'm hoping to get this thing at least fired up in the next couple of weeks, then it will be time to save up for paint. Sometime during that process, before its road worthy again, I'll be changing spindles to eliminate the problem. It just sucks that I bought what I thought was a reputable company's product , just to have it be junk and a waste of money.

Cheap with free shipping too.

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/clp-cp4s4/overview/year/1978/make/gmc/model/c15