The front wheel of my son's 4x2 Exploder fell off. The nut that holds the wheel bearings in had loosened and eventually backed completely off of the spindle. It caused a lot of damage to the brakes and bearings when the hub slid off of the spindle. Thank God it happened when he turrrned into our driveway as he had just been on the freeway at 60 MPH for about 50 miles. A miracle......

The outer bearing was apparantly riding on the threads of the spindle for a while and have worn them down. The threads still have plenty of definition, but do not have sharp ridges, rather, rounded ones. When I screw on the old nut it is very loose on the threads. The old nut has worn threads as well. I don't think the threads on the spindle will hold a new nut securely in their present condition.

I am wondering if I can get a "die" and recut the same threads to restore them. Or could/should I re-thread the spindle to accept a smaller diameter nut? I am looking for an alternative to replacing the spindle as it appears to be a big job and likely expensive as it has the ABS sensor as well.

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

For your safety and others, if it looks questional, replace. After you have killed, dismembered yourself or other innocent people, was it worth the dollars saved? Sorry to sound harsh but I was injured by a piece of crap that shouldn't of been on public highways or roads. Will you insurance pay off if they found out you had a unsafe vehicle? Think about it.

Carl....=o&o>....

 

What happened to the cotter pin? Front rotors on 2 wheel drives are held on by a castle nut type deal with a cotter pin to secure them. They are not tightened down much more than hand tight. You need to look at the threads where the nut sits when it is finally seated. If they are good run a die over once and replace the nut with a new one. torque it properly and use a new cotter pin to secure it in place. If not replace it all together. I would not try to alter the spindle by rethreading it.

"Thank God it happened when he turrrned into our driveway as he had just been on the freeway at 60 MPH for about 50 miles. A miracle......"

 

There are two things that I don't screw around with, and that's brakes and steering. Both are deadly if they don't work right.

See if you can clean it up, and if it doesn't feel right, then spend a few bucks so your kid can drive something that won't kill him or someone else.

Just think how you'd feel if six months from now the wheel falls off again and he kills someone else or himself. Forget about insurance and who would pay for what - how would that make you feel?

The risks that people take, and the danger they willingly put people in so they can save money is just absurd...

 

Thanks for the responses!!

I have no intention of putting the vehicle back on the road if it is not safe.

I went to the Dealer to price a new spindle only to find out that they are no longer in production and not available through Ford. I will now look for new "after market suppliers" and at "Junkyards".

I was amazed at the small size of the retaining nut. It is only like 3/8 of an inch thick. Most of the "castle nuts" I have seen in the past were 5/8 to 3/4 of an inch.

I think the thread on the shaft/nut is 3/4 x 16. I was thinking that if I couldn't clean up the exisiting threads, there might be a metric size that was a mite smaller, that was very similar, that would not reduce the strength of the nut's holding power.

I don't know what happened to the cotter key, but it was sheared off. Maybe the bearings got in a bind. The driver side wheel does rotate counter clock wise so as to loosen the nut as opposed to the clockwise tightening effect that it would have on the passenger side (in the event that it got in a bind).

The spindle surfaces on which the bearings ride do not appear to be damaged. The inboard surface had a very very minor ridge which I removed with emory cloth.

So far, I have purchased new bearings, seals, caliper, shoes, brake line etc.

My son is putting the pressure on me to fix it. He's asking to drive my Dakota!!! The last time he drove it, it came back smelling of burnt rubber.....

I've got to get it fixed soon.

 

Where did you find the spindle at?