I should fix this right? M body and a body spindles mixed up.

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DumpsterFire

DumpsterFire

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My shitbox m body needed a spindle so I grabbed what I had laying around and now I got one m body spindle and one spindle from a 73 dart on my m body. This shouldn't work right, right? It seems to steer fine and nothing feels wrong. This might become temporarily permanent. There's some m bodies in kill shelters right now. I'm tempted to go get the spindles out of those things now just to keep as spares.
 
Probably not the best idea to have mismatched spindles since the M-body version is slightly taller.

It’s not going to be some crazy dangerous thing, but the toe change, camber gain etc will be different from one side to the other.

The differences in geometry are fairly minor, so, it’s probably not something most people would notice as long as any alignment differences are taken care of. But yeah, I’d plan on finding another M-body spindle to replace the A body one.
 
I would leave it the way it is, start a YouTube channel and visit a bunch of different shops to have it aligned, just to see what happens. I would totally watch those videos
 
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diymirage said:
I would leave it the way it is, start a YouTube channel and visit a bunch of different shops to have it aligned, just what happens. I would totally watch those videos
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Knowing most places it would come out worse and no one would say anything.
 
If you have access to M body spindles, then grab them. Some poor bastard in the future will thank you.
 
diymirage said:
still make interesting video
specially if he goes back afterwards and tells em what is going on
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I doubt it. They’re not easy to tell apart unless they’re sitting side by side, or you measure them. The change in adjustment would be minor and well within the capabilities of the camber bolts.

So, I wouldn’t expect any shop to even notice that they’re different or have reason to look into it at all.

And when he went back later the shop would likely just shrug and point to the fact that it left “in the green” and any parts already installed on the car isn’t their problem.
 
72bluNblu said:
I doubt it. They’re not easy to tell apart unless they’re sitting side by side, or you measure them. The change in adjustment would be minor and well within the capabilities of the camber bolts.

So, I wouldn’t expect any shop to even notice that they’re different or have reason to look into it at all.

And when he went back later the shop would likely just shrug and point to the fact that it left “in the green” and any parts already installed on the car isn’t their problem.
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if they get it in the green, id like to see that too
 
diymirage said:
if they get it in the green, id like to see that too
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On a static alignment why wouldn’t they?

The shorter A-body spindle on the M body isn’t going to change any of the geometry enough to put it outside the range of the camber bolts.

Even on the complete camber curves through the whole range of travel the difference between those spindles is minor. Like you’d need to be racing against a clock and even then you’d need a skilled driver to be consistent enough to show up a small difference.

There’d be no difficulty getting that M-body to factory specs with an A-body spindle on there. Just like there’s no difficulty getting an A-body aligned with FMJ spindles.
 

Hell, if it's on the "advantageous side," and you drive on a lot of crowned roads, it might even HELP.

AND NOW YET ANOTHER annoying story from the old days. When I worked in auto parts a guy talked me into doing some work on a dodge pu, old ?? 65-68, don't remember.

I don't remember if it was just steering poorly, or brakes, or what, anymore, but I get one side apart, and it looked pretty reasonable. Shoe had no oil on it, or brake fluid, drum looked pretty good.

SO THEN I take the other side off, and it turns out, later, talking to the owner, they'd had some trouble, and payed a guy to replace a damaged spindle. I don't remember the details, whether this was light vs heavy duty, or 1/2 vs 3/4T or what, but they had the originally correct hub drum, but the spindle was TOO SMALL. So they'd just tightened up the bearings/ castle nut to where the spindle started to flare into the casting, "and ran it." That was one hell of a mess and I didn't make a dime on it, all said and done. Just finding a correct junkyard spindle, as I remember, was a real chore.
 
67Dart273 said:
Hell, if it's on the "advantageous side," and you drive on a lot of crowned roads, it might even HELP.

AND NOW YET ANOTHER annoying story from the old days. When I worked in auto parts a guy talked me into doing some work on a dodge pu, old ?? 65-68, don't remember.

I don't remember if it was just steering poorly, or brakes, or what, anymore, but I get one side apart, and it looked pretty reasonable. Shoe had no oil on it, or brake fluid, drum looked pretty good.

SO THEN I take the other side off, and it turns out, later, talking to the owner, they'd had some trouble, and payed a guy to replace a damaged spindle. I don't remember the details, whether this was light vs heavy duty, or 1/2 vs 3/4T or what, but they had the originally correct hub drum, but the spindle was TOO SMALL. So they'd just tightened up the bearings/ castle nut to where the spindle started to flare into the casting, "and ran it." That was one hell of a mess and I didn't make a dime on it, all said and done. Just finding a correct junkyard spindle, as I remember, was a real chore.
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In the early-mid 80s I was asked by a friend of my mother's to look at a car she had bought month or two before. It gad a bad pull when brakes applied
Pulled wheels and it up on stands disk on one side drum other. Someone's fix to sell a car. Had to get disk stuff for one side. Must have seen the Movie Used Car's
I had a friend who was visiting. I ssid see if yiu see what wrong. So he looked at it, he walks up to the drum side inspects says looks fine. Goes to other side and says wait. WtF.
Used old cars
 
3/8" difference in height.

To account for the ISO K frame bushings on 73 and up B body cars.
 
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