97 Suburban Spindle Replacement

JSWALLY

MEMBER
1997 CHEVROLET SUBURBAN

Spindle seems worn - 200K mi. Brakes worn irregularily. discovered spindle inner wear... backing plate has wear marks where hub scraped. (driver and Passenger sides). Vehicle is new to me; have history from brother last 140k.. he noticed unusual wheel bearing noise. Apparently mechanics just added grease and tightened spindle nut to max.
Q: can I replace spindle - pretty handy but no special tools like coil clamp. Or does this require special shop?
Thanks (will try to add photos)

2 Replies

MERLIN2021

MECHANIC
17,250 POSTS

Been a long time since i've done a chevy spindle, but if it is worn did you take a measurement? There are spec for them. Call chevy and they will give it to you.
If it is out of specs, some are part of the knuckle, some can be unbolted from the knuckle. Since you are this far along. It should be faily easy! If it's part of the knuckle support the lower contol arm b4 U break the ball loint! From the looks of the picture. It's 2 wheel drive? If yes I think the whole knucle needs to go!