67 Wheel bearing saga- Unbelieveable

[Gerard F.]

Well I thought I'd do a little prep work for the rear trailing arm swap.

Got the car jacked up in the yard (just can't move it from the place it was towed) and thought I'd pull the brake caliper to refinish it to go with the new trailing arm:



The caliper bolts came out just fine with a 5/8" spark plug socket, breaker bar with a pipe extender.

However, as soon as I pulled the caliper, the spindle fell to the ground. The brake caliper was the only thing holding the wheel in place. Here's what the spindle shaft looked like:



Here's the inside of the spindle support and the rest of the spindle shaft:



Found the half shafts, and U-joints with the spindle flange attached are just flopping around. However, the parking brake looks to be in good shape, just a little rusty.

Should be back on the road this weekend. I have my brake and alignment mechanic making a house call Friday to swap the broken trailing arm with a new one, so that I can move the car out of the yard. Then next week I'll bring it to his shop, and get the other side swapped and everything aligned correctly. Figuring on doing 1/2d Neg camber and 1/32" toe-in each side.

Did 67's use the cotter pins on the trailing arm shims. I don't see anyplace on the frame where the pins would go to hold them in place.


Feeling lucky, I thank my lucky stars.

[Wayne W.]

Re: 67 Wheel bearing saga- Unbelieveable

Ya think that might have given you a little warning? No large cotter pins on the `67.

[Joe L.]

Re: 67 Wheel bearing saga- Unbelieveable

Well I thought I'd do a little prep work for the rear trailing arm swap.

Got the car jacked up in the yard (just can't move it from the place it was towed) and thought I'd pull the brake caliper to refinish it to go with the new trailing arm:



The caliper bolts came out just fine with a 5/8" spark plug socket, breaker bar with a pipe extender.

However, as soon as I pulled the caliper, the spindle fell to the ground. The brake caliper was the only thing holding the wheel in place. Here's what the spindle shaft looked like:



Here's the inside of the spindle support and the rest of the spindle shaft:



Found the half shafts, and U-joints with the spindle flange attached are just flopping around. However, the parking brake looks to be in good shape, just a little rusty.

Should be back on the road this weekend. I have my brake and alignment mechanic making a house call Friday to swap the broken trailing arm with a new one, so that I can move the car out of the yard. Then next week I'll bring it to his shop, and get the other side swapped and everything aligned correctly. Figuring on doing 1/2d Neg camber and 1/32" toe-in each side.

Did 67's use the cotter pins on the trailing arm shims. I don't see anyplace on the frame where the pins would go to hold them in place.


Feeling lucky, I thank my lucky stars.

Jerry-----

What you have pictured is exactly what often happens with a 63-82 Corvette failed rear wheel bearing. I have seen other failures look EXACTLY like yours. Usually, just as in your case, the caliper is the "saving grace". However, the caliper bracket is sometimes bent or broken.

With 63-64 Corvettes there is, of course, no caliper. So, with these models, the wheel can "separate" from the car taking fiberglass with it. This can also happen with 65-82 if the caliper bracket breaks, but that's not a common occurrence. The caliper brackets are made from malleable iron and they will usually bend before breaking.

[Terry M.]

[Duke W.]

Re: 67 Wheel bearing saga- Unbelieveable

The housing appears to be "dry", but maybe you cleaned it out.

Does it appear that the primary failure was a seized bearing that caused the spindle shaft to break, or does it appear that the spindle broke on its own.

Duke

[Joe R.]

Re: 67 Wheel bearing saga- Unbelieveable

Jerry,

Get the batteries changed in your hearing aid immediately!!!!!!!!!

That was a disaster waiting to happen!!!! For you and anybody you selected to be the recipient!

Glad your and yours are still with us!

JR

[Kirk M.]

Re: 67 Wheel bearing saga- Unbelieveable

Well I thought I'd do a little prep work for the rear trailing arm swap.

Got the car jacked up in the yard (just can't move it from the place it was towed) and thought I'd pull the brake caliper to refinish it to go with the new trailing arm:



The caliper bolts came out just fine with a 5/8" spark plug socket, breaker bar with a pipe extender.

However, as soon as I pulled the caliper, the spindle fell to the ground. The brake caliper was the only thing holding the wheel in place. Here's what the spindle shaft looked like:



Here's the inside of the spindle support and the rest of the spindle shaft:



Found the half shafts, and U-joints with the spindle flange attached are just flopping around. However, the parking brake looks to be in good shape, just a little rusty.

Should be back on the road this weekend. I have my brake and alignment mechanic making a house call Friday to swap the broken trailing arm with a new one, so that I can move the car out of the yard. Then next week I'll bring it to his shop, and get the other side swapped and everything aligned correctly. Figuring on doing 1/2d Neg camber and 1/32" toe-in each side.

Did 67's use the cotter pins on the trailing arm shims. I don't see anyplace on the frame where the pins would go to hold them in place.


Feeling lucky, I thank my lucky stars.

Gerry, I can's see the pics. I would like to view them so I can get a sense of exactly what happened. Thanks.

Kirk

[Terry M.]

Re: 67 Wheel bearing saga- Unbelieveable

I see them fine -- and a work too. Kirk something is up at your end.

[Bill M.]

Re: 67 Wheel bearing saga- Unbelieveable

Jerry:

Thanks for the story and the pictures. Glad you're OK. I've never seen this failure before. Hope I never do again!

Guess I'll have my old calipers rebuilt and returned.

Bill

[Gerard F.]

Re: 67 Wheel bearing saga- Unbelieveable

Duke,

As JR says, I need to get my ears checked. From the looks of the spindle and the rounding at the break, the bearing problem must have been going on for quite some time, but I never noticed any noise except on the last trip.

Going from Sonora to the Elk Grove meet is only 100 miles. On the way up, late in the trip, I noticed a rubbling tire noise at high speed on Highway 99. I figured that it was from rough or grooved pavement on the highway, as it sounded like that type of sound. Got to the hotel and back and forth to the Friday events, and to the judging meet on Saturday morning with no further noises.

However, as I was pulling out from the event (with my Top Flight Ribbon), we started to hear this crunching sound. Played around with parking break back and forth and the sound went away. Then 10 miles down the road, the noise started again at 65. Slowed down to 50, it went away and then all of a sudden the wheel locked up and I skidded to the shoulder for about 150'.

It was noticed at the event by my partner, that both rear wheels seemed to have excessive negative camber. I had just had it to a shop (I no longer go to) the week before, and they had done a 4 wheel alignment. This is the shop that had redone my suspension about 5 years ago and we used your spec of 1/2d N and 1/32" toe-in each for the rear at that time. So I thought they knew what they were doing.

However, is it a coincidence that the wheel bearing and spindle goes out 150 miles after the realignment? Could an excessive camber cause this problem to accellerate to the breaking point?

Regards,

[Chuck G.]

Re: 67 Wheel bearing saga- Unbelieveable

I think it was just probably "tired" and ready to go, Jerry. I wouldn't think it had anything to do with the alignment.

Even though I had never had problems with either my 63 or my 69, I re-did the TA's in both cars, the 63 about 15 years ago, and the 69 about 8 years ago.

I figured it was cheap insurance.

Consider yourself lucky. Go buy a lottery ticket.

Chuck

[Clem Z.]

Re: 67 Wheel bearing saga- Unbelieveable

Duke,

As JR says, I need to get my ears checked. From the looks of the spindle and the rounding at the break, the bearing problem must have been going on for quite some time, but I never noticed any noise except on the last trip.

Going from Sonora to the Elk Grove meet is only 100 miles. On the way up, late in the trip, I noticed a rubbling tire noise at high speed on Highway 99. I figured that it was from rough or grooved pavement on the highway, as it sounded like that type of sound. Got to the hotel and back and forth to the Friday events, and to the judging meet on Saturday morning with no further noises.

However, as I was pulling out from the event (with my Top Flight Ribbon), we started to hear this crunching sound. Played around with parking break back and forth and the sound went away. Then 10 miles down the road, the noise started again at 65. Slowed down to 50, it went away and then all of a sudden the wheel locked up and I skidded to the shoulder for about 150'.

It was noticed at the event by my partner, that both rear wheels seemed to have excessive negative camber. I had just had it to a shop (I no longer go to) the week before, and they had done a 4 wheel alignment. This is the shop that had redone my suspension about 5 years ago and we used your spec of 1/2d N and 1/32" toe-in each for the rear at that time. So I thought they knew what they were doing.

However, is it a coincidence that the wheel bearing and spindle goes out 150 miles after the realignment? Could an excessive camber cause this problem to accellerate to the breaking point?

Regards,

i would guess GM did not spec the grease to last 40+ years.

[Michael H.]

Re: 67 Wheel bearing saga- Unbelieveable

I think it was just probably "tired" and ready to go, Jerry. I wouldn't think it had anything to do with the alignment.

I agree with Chuck. I doubt the two are related. Just old tired lubricant.

From time to time, it's a good idea to shift to neutral or push the clutch in, shut off the engine while crusing down a quiet highway so you can listen to your car and all of it's wheel bearings. An especially good idea for owners of cars with side exhaust because any bearing noise is completely covered by the exhaust.

I heard the "crunch" of a rear bearing in the 66 as I passed through Atlanta Ga when bringing the car to Florida from Illinois.
I knew I was in trouble with about 500 miles to go but continued anyway. I almost made it. The last 50 miles were on the back of a car carrier. Lucky that my spindle didn't melt and break like you're did.

[Brian M.]

Re: 67 Wheel bearing saga- Unbelieveable

When my left rear bearings went it was the grinding noise and the smoke that tipped me off. I was able to make it home.

[Terry M.]

Re: 67 Wheel bearing saga- Unbelieveable

That's only if they put any grease in to begin with. When I had my 1970 rear bearings done four years ago (I'll save you the math -- that is 34 years) the report was -- almost no grease in there. Now maybe it sublimated and disappeared, but I don't think that is what happened. The vendor who assembled the TAs originally saved a few cents per unit by scrimping on grease.