So the new spindles do or do not flip the tie rods?

 

the new spindles have the rods flipped, Mine are one of the very first sets ever made, I bought them from Scott's Elle over on NLOC, he bought them the day they were released I think.....I am waiting to hear from BT on an exchange.

 

sorry...didn't notice.

 

Good news from Belltech, they took a $100 security deposit, and are shipping new spindles to me, when they get the old ones back they will refund the $100 deposit, I dealt with Eric at BT and he was a stand up guy and very knowledgable too. They get a big thumbs up from me for the great customer service attitude!!

 

so are these new bt spindles suppose to work with the factory 18" wheels w/o modification?

 

the ball-joint nut issue hasn't changed. everything else is cool.

 

If i was still on 18's I dont think I would have gotten these spindles personally.

 

Exactly why are they replacing them, i.e., what are the defects that BT is acknowledging?

Will the new ones both have the milling on the ball joint nut face and the reverse milled tie rod hole?

 

The ball joint situation is unchanged, you still need to use the locknut and trim approach for 18" wheels, they are sending me new ones because they reversed the taper for the tie rod ends to mount from the bottom like Gary's. I told Eric you may call next, if so be nice to him he's a good guy his ext. is 140.

 

&^$$&&*^^$#%@@$&$&^%^$%&%%^%)O)_()(&%^$%^$%#^#$#&* &^%%^*&^%*^%%*&%*^^%*^^&^%%&& BELLTECH...

What a F%**&^%^( POS company.

GBgary, that geometry does look very good. I see you are using stock links. Do you also have stock springs? Did you modify your spindles to be able to mount the tie-rod underneath or did you get the new type spindle? If you modified, what is involved?

That would explain the limited clearance with the Hotchkis sway bars. I was currently in the process of making longer links but wasn't too crazy about longer ones. That would have been a band aid approach.

I am so sick of garbage aftermarket POS parts. I can't believe the F&*&$%&$ hassles I got with these F&^&^$%&^$% spindles and it just doesn't F&^%&%%& stop.

Coated, machined, perfect 2 hour alignment all up in smoke. Sorry guys but I am beyond pissed...

TB

 

Dude don't start me up, I payed JJ's guy in maryland $150 for my last alignment.....at least I only need toe adjusted after the new spindles go on.....Gary has the newer design which has the tierods mounting from the bottom, I had no idea you had the old spindles as well.....I do feel your pain at least, mine were powder coated as well......theyre just getting etching primer and paint this time around.....

Call BT and talk to Eric at ext.140 he will take care fo you the best he can.

 

TB, do what I'm doing -- take deep breaths, look at all the options, then reevaluate and move on.

I'm leaning towards machining out the taper and using 3/4" hardware from Bullet Proof Steering. It's uber-high quality stuff, and is supposed to be both more durable and have less play than ball joints.

Getting the tie rod parallel to the LCA is just a rough guess. That may actually result in the worst bump steer of all. And by boring out the taper, the heim can be put on either side of the knuckle. I'm going to break down and buy a bump steer gauge so I can stop guessing about bump steer.



I have an e-mail into Longacre asking which is the best version to buy for 5 X 135 hubs.

Reaming out the taper (on both the spindles and the center link) is a bit of a concern, but the 3/4" bolts from Bullet Proof are Grade 9+. Their stuff is made for rock crawling. We can't use Mustang BS kits, even those that drill out the taper. Our taper goes from about .55" to .65". The Mustang bore-out kits use 5/8" (.625") bolts. I'd feel better about a 3/4" bore anyway.

Although I need to look at my suspension photos a little more (I have hi-res ones so I can daydream at my desk instead of under the truck), going with a straight bolt/heim tie rod solution might also allow spacer adjustments at the center link end. If, as I fear, the best position for the outer heim is smack dab in the middle of the BT knuckle, then maybe some adjustment can be made at the center link to compensate.

An additional concern is that the best anti-BS solution may actually be to use a BS kit on the stock $&%^#^ spindles. So what benefit, then, is there to the BT spindles? Reduced scrub axis is the only one that I can think of. And I'm still not 100% sure that this is a real benefit.

At any rate, before a final decision is made, I'd like to see the bump steer measurements of the stock spindles and the BT spindles (tie rod up version). I don't think that it will be possible to measure a BT tie rod down configuration using the up version, but maybe the tie rod up data can be interpolated.

I have to thank BT for one thing, though -- forcing me to do what I should have done to begin with -- actually measuring the bump steer. There is too much BS and not enough real data on the subject.

 

Oh, yeah. . .

F**k Belltech.

 

"I'm leaning towards machining out the taper and using 3/4" hardware from Bullet Proof Steering. It's uber-high quality stuff, and is supposed to be both more durable and have less play than ball joints."




In the off road world, heim joints are known to wear out faster than TRE's. However, incorrect geometry can take it all out and cause both TRE's and heim joints to wear quick. Once worn, the heim joints become loud and irritating when driven.

 

everything is stock except shocks but i'm headed back to stock there too. as pit said these turned out to be the new style.