Cast parts can bend without breaking.

Someone posted within the last month or two was of the opinion that cast parts could not bend.
I tried to convince him they could without much success.

Unfortunately, member FieroMGDriver has proven this.
He was hit by an elderly woman.
Here is his bent spindle

or you can read the whole thread.
https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum1/HTML/055406.html

One of the guys in our club loaned his car to his son, who slid it sideways into a curb, while "only going 35 MPH".
Aside from all the stuff that was just outright broken, it bent the machined spindle down by almost 1/2 inch.
I never would have believed it, either, until I saw that.

I have seen cast parts bent also. A guy called me one time because he "had a rear suspension problem". He BROKE the rear knuckle in half. He said he was backing out of his driveway and ran into a ditch ........Paul

I think people get confused with names. While the spindles are cast they are still a higher grade of steel and will bend.
People often confuse casting with the old term "Pot metal" casting which is very brittle due to the poorer metal used and the type of process.
Here is some info if your interested.
(Wow that machine tool degree from years ago did pay off. )

TYPES OF CAST IRON:

1) Grey Cast Iron:
The grey cast iron has a low tensile strenght, high compressive strength and no ductility. It can be easily machined. It is very suitable for those parts where sliding action is desired. The grey iron castings are widely used for machines tool bodies, automotive cylinder blocks, heads, housings, fly-wheels, pipes and pipe fittings.

2) White Cast Iron:
It has high tensile strength and low compressive strength. It is used in car wheels, rolls for crushing grains and jaw crusher plates.

3) Chilled Cast Iron:
It is white cast iron produced by quick cooling of molten iron. Chills are used on any faces of casting which are required to be hard to withstand wear and friction.

4) Mottled Cast Iron:
It is product in between grey and white cast iron in composition, colour and general properties. It is obtained in castings where certain wearing surfaces have been chilled.

5) Malleable Cast Iron:
It is ductile and may be bent without breaking or fracturing the section. It has excellent machining qualities. It is used for machine parts for which the steel forgings would be too expensive and in which the metal should have a fair degree of accuracy, e.g. hubs of wagon wheels, small fittings, for railway rolling stock, brake supports, parts of agricultural machinery, pipe fittings, door higes etc.

Right on Dodgerunner. The make up, or alloy, of the material cast, be it iron, steel, alluminum etc effect the bend break topic. There are basicly 3 types of stress, Tensil ( tention) compression, or shear. Each alloy is designed for a particular strength. The "ductility" of the metal can be very differant for differant applications.

the item of question was infact a spindle.
and the person refused to believe that a spindle could be bent. keeping a car from being aligned within spec.

There's a vast difference between cast steel and cast iron even though to the naked eye they look similar. The process of converting iron to steel removes carbon from the mix. The high carbon content of cast iron is responsible for its brittleness.

In case you would like another picture to further prove your point. This is my passenger side knuckle after a lady plowed into me at ~40mph.

[This message has been edited by derangedsheep (edited 11-03-2005).]

derangedsheep can't believe you didn't just hammer that out...... Unbelieveable, bet the wheel was a real leaner!

quote Originally posted by derangedsheep: In case you would like another picture to further prove your point. This is my passenger side knuckle after a lady plowed into me at ~40mph.

that's a good one.
i'll say that even i'm surprised that it didn't brake

I remember that when I worked in a body shop, replacing bent spindles was a pretty common job. A little snow or ice, a low-speed slide into a curb, doh!

Bent spindles are a very common problem for 84-87 Fieros too, the shafts are bent frequently.

The 88 Wheel hub system is so much better IMO, Too bad they didn't use them from day one on all Fiero's.

I hear this kind of thing all the time and it kind of bothers me.

The bearing pack system as used on the '88's is certainly not trouble free. Lots of people that race '88's break them all the time and are having trouble with the aftermarket ones that are out there. There is absolutely nothing wrong with a spindle and hub setup like the Fiero uses but the Fiero's is just slightly undersized, they needed to increase the capacity just a little bit but couldn't since they were limited to the Chevette components (for the most part).

Quite frankly, I'd think of a way to go to the F body spindle/hub if I was worried enough about it before I'd consider going to the '88 system.

John Stricker

quote Originally posted by Fierobsessed: Bent spindles are a very common problem for 84-87 Fieros too, the shafts are bent frequently. The 88 Wheel hub system is so much better IMO, Too bad they didn't use them from day one on all Fiero's.

quote Originally posted by Dodgerunner: derangedsheep can't believe you didn't just hammer that out...... Unbelieveable, bet the wheel was a real leaner!

[This message has been edited by derangedsheep (edited 11-06-2005).]

While repacking the bearings on my car, I took a good look at the spindle - it doesn't really look like cast iron like the rest of the knuckle. It looked very much like a piece of chrome-moly steel we had at the machine shop at school, with a slightly bluish steel color to it. It also had a temper line where it appeared to be heat treated as well.

Anybody know if they're made of some sorta alloy steel? 4130 or something like that?