RR spindle

[deathegg]

Well took the Deathegg to the shop today; lost my brakes on the 91 freeway! Seems i have rusty brakes lines. Thank God i didn't crash! Anyway, the brake leak is on a line under the driver, but the mechanic took apart the RR wheel.. said i need a new spindle because it's stripped. What are the odds (good i think) that his mechanic didnt know it's reversed threaded, and stripped it? Do i have any recourse here? I want to ask him if the nuts are just regular nuts and if he says yes, i got him, because he tried to remove them like a regular threaded nut. Right??
Are these hard to find these days? Anyone have one for sale?
I am reallly mad, and can't afford the price he quoted me for the total repairs (over $600)

[jglutz]

Almost impossible to strip by taking it off...If it was turned the wrong way...tightened instead of loosened...it would have just stalled out.

What most likely happened....the last installer cross threaded it while installing or cuaght a burr/broken thread while installing.....the following removal trashed the threads.

[deathegg]

Ah yes, was not thinking right on that....

are these hard to find used? OR can stripped threads be fixed on these?

[LauraZ]

Try Autozone

My local autozone said that the rear spindles are no longer available new, but that they could get a used one for me for just over $170.00. :sad5: Needless to say, I am still looking. If I find more than 2 (1 for each side of mine), I'll let you know. I haven't checked Carquest yet though.

[Pu241]

...but that they could get a used one for me for just over $170.00. :sad5:

Man and I thought I needed KY(not the state) when a bought a new set for a backup for $60 each, about 5 years ago!

[Omgloltokyodrift]

From my experiences, if you DO strip something on the rear spindles, it's just the nut. $5 at CarQuest. (The nuts are made out of a softer metal than the spindle, so you can stake them.) I picked up rear spindles for less than $12 each, used, at the junkyard (make sure you wipe them off and check the threads while you're there!). I can't remember if that was with the core charge or not.

We should do a pre-meet in Socal, and go fix your car... $600 seems like a lot of money for something so simple...

*shrugs*

[WmWatt]

The cost of replacing brakeline is mostly labour. I replaced all of mine for $85 including fluid and a flare wrench. I put some info about it at www.ag384bn.bravehost.com/braketips.htm

[fastivaca]

I forgot about the "backwards" threads once (only once!!) and thought I'd stripped the spindle but had only stripped the nut. These nuts are the same as the ones for early Mazdas which might be easier to find than looking under Festiva.

Hope that helps.

[rancheeto]

i did the same thing, and it usually is the nut that stips, but if not, you can take the spindle off easy(four nuts on the bak side). should be cheap at a j/y. if not, i have two from a parts car. by the way, you can use one from the drivers side if you wanna make it with regular thread(easier to find nuts for). pm me if you need one, there is a j/y down the street from where i am with 3 festys.

[freshtiva]

^ I concur, the nut will strip first, I also have two righty tighty spindles on my car redford. I dont concur that the spindles are easy to remove, mainly because of that darn lower strut bolt.

PS dont try to loosen the spindle bolts from the front side.

[deathegg]

UPDATE: well, went over to the mechanic to see what was going on; and yes the spindle is stripped. He got a good used one for $150 (yes i know its too high but have no choice).
the rear brakes are just shot; rusty as they can get, cylinders are not working, etc.
So he is splicing in a hard line to replace the rusty one under the car to fix the leak, replacing the spindle etc and i will have front brakes again, as I'm used to. Hopefully i can get those back brakes fixed within the next two months!

And, it pains me to say this, but i expect the Deathegg to last another year, but thats it. It is just too rusty to keep driving safely, and once i get back to PA, the rust will start again, and thats it.

[Pgh5spd]

In my experience, the place the brake line rusts out first is below the toeboard, where the lines run between the crossmember and the floor pan. A nasty place to work, especially if the crossmember has never been removed.

[deathegg]

Not sure where you mean.....Do you mean right under the car under the driver's feet? That's where it rusted at. Turns out it was only a portion of line about 2" long.