Spindle repair/reconditioning 1962

[Stephen B.]

Re: Spindle repair/reconditioning 1962

When I was a young lad my bicycle had ball bearings and real automobiles had roller bearings. Only God knows why they put ball bearings in a Corvette. Seems very contradictory to be promoting a performance car and put bicycle bearings in it. I replaced the ball bearings with rollers in my 59. It's a no brainer.
Stephen Barrett (21558)
59,66,71,73

[Joe L.]

Re: Spindle repair/reconditioning 1962

When I was a young lad my bicycle had ball bearings and real automobiles had roller bearings. Only God knows why they put ball bearings in a Corvette. Seems very contradictory to be promoting a performance car and put bicycle bearings in it. I replaced the ball bearings with rollers in my 59. It's a no brainer.
Stephen Barrett (21558)
59,66,71,73

Stephen------


They put ball bearings in C1 Corvettes because 1949-54 passenger cars, on which the entire chassis of C1 Corvettes was based, used ball bearings.

I believe Chevrolet was trying to create a sports car on a "shoe-string" budget and creating a completely new and modern chassis was not feasible. They probably spent their entire budget on the body and interior for the car. Then, with the low volume of the car, they could not afford to change it in 1955 when the passenger car chassis changed. It had to "soldier on" through 1962.

The same thing occurred again for 1963-82. The front suspension for the C2 and C3 Corvettes was, basically, 1958-64 passenger car. However, at least for C2 and C3 they included a completely unique REAR suspension which they had not done for C1 Corvettes.

[Jim L.]

Re: Spindle repair/reconditioning 1962

Yup. GM didn't change to roller wheel bearings for virtually all 1955 and later cars (except 55-62 Corvette) because ball bearings worked just as well.

Maybe the higher priced car lines switched to roller bearings, but as late as at least '57, the full sized Chebbys used ball bearings.

Jim

[Joe L.]

Re: Spindle repair/reconditioning 1962

Maybe the higher priced car lines switched to roller bearings, but as late as at least '57, the full sized Chebbys used ball bearings.

Jim

Jim------


Yes, it appears I was incorrect. I could just swear that when I used to lube the front wheel bearings on 55-57 Chevy's when I was a gas station attendant back in my high school days that those cars used roller bearings. But, that seems to be not the case. Looking into it further, it looks like passenger cars used ball bearings through the 1960 model year with the exception of 59-60 taxi cabs which used roller bearings.