stagger lee
Well-known member
with all the interest in spindles, but apparent cost/logistic issues to actually get hold of some. why don't people get together and make their own using integrated resources, a co-operative type thing?
i made my own disk-braked dropped spindles several years ago when you couldn't really get them for bays, not easily anyway. in my back yard with most of the tools you guys have; grinder, welder, workmate, hacksaw etc over a weekend. i initially took them to get them machined, but just got messed about, so did it myself. made a jig and got on with it.
they've been on the van years now, been all over the country seriously loaded up etc. every faith in them.
they came out at about a 2.5-3 inch drop, 5-10mm track increase. the biggest problems i had/have are that; the flippin speedo cable comes out right infront of the top ball joint taper/nut. so subsequently i couldn't fit a speedo cable, and to this day haven't had one. also the lower balljoint fouled the inner rim of the wheel. i had to significantly reduce the amount that the joint taper/nut extends below the trailing arm. it really needs a 1 inch narrowed pair of wheels to sort this. i will get round to this some day.
oh, the biggest hassle was tubbing my wheel arches, which i never accounted for. oh, and cutting sections out of the inner door frame too. so you can close the bloody doors after tubbing the arches. typical simple job turning into an epic.
i'm planning to make another set, now that i have some machining facilities and resolve those issues mentioned above.
dropped spindles aren't rocket science. they can easily be made diy. if you can afford the ones out there on the market, then great, they all look fantastic. but if like me you don't want to spend 500 notes on somehting that you could do yourself, or at least have a go for minimal costs (2xpair of spindles). or simply put the money to better use; pay the mortgage, treat the gf if you have one? or the bf for that matter? whatever. satisfaction of doing it is pretty good too.
i thinks it's fairly obvious that quality/faith of welding has to be second to none here. but saying that welding isn't rocket science either.
anyway food for thought?
i made my own disk-braked dropped spindles several years ago when you couldn't really get them for bays, not easily anyway. in my back yard with most of the tools you guys have; grinder, welder, workmate, hacksaw etc over a weekend. i initially took them to get them machined, but just got messed about, so did it myself. made a jig and got on with it.
they've been on the van years now, been all over the country seriously loaded up etc. every faith in them.
they came out at about a 2.5-3 inch drop, 5-10mm track increase. the biggest problems i had/have are that; the flippin speedo cable comes out right infront of the top ball joint taper/nut. so subsequently i couldn't fit a speedo cable, and to this day haven't had one. also the lower balljoint fouled the inner rim of the wheel. i had to significantly reduce the amount that the joint taper/nut extends below the trailing arm. it really needs a 1 inch narrowed pair of wheels to sort this. i will get round to this some day.
oh, the biggest hassle was tubbing my wheel arches, which i never accounted for. oh, and cutting sections out of the inner door frame too. so you can close the bloody doors after tubbing the arches. typical simple job turning into an epic.
i'm planning to make another set, now that i have some machining facilities and resolve those issues mentioned above.
dropped spindles aren't rocket science. they can easily be made diy. if you can afford the ones out there on the market, then great, they all look fantastic. but if like me you don't want to spend 500 notes on somehting that you could do yourself, or at least have a go for minimal costs (2xpair of spindles). or simply put the money to better use; pay the mortgage, treat the gf if you have one? or the bf for that matter? whatever. satisfaction of doing it is pretty good too.
i thinks it's fairly obvious that quality/faith of welding has to be second to none here. but saying that welding isn't rocket science either.
anyway food for thought?
youd be a dropped spindle based millionare playboy by now?
