trailer spindle repair

Bob Korves said:
I have never seen a snap gage with flat ends
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Bob. So glad to hear you call them Snap Gages. We always called them that at work, but Telescoping seems to be the common term here, Snap or Pop, either one is fine with me.
 
The ends of my Starrett telescoping gauges are not flat. They are slightly convex and I mean slightly. In smaller diameter holes the contact is on the edge of the gauge and not in the center. If I look closely I can see a narrow gap between the center of the gauge and the diameter of the hole. If the gauge had a truly round end that would solve the problem.
I thought that I would mention this for other newbies to machining who might also be experiencing in to this issue.
 
I too have never seen a telescoping gage with flat ends; perhaps you are thinking that they should have a full radius, when in fact, they are radiused to suit the smallest hole measurement in their range size. Another thing is how you are using it; the procedure is to get it inserted in the hole at a small angle, then snug the lock up and rock it over center and remove it for measurement, then measure it with a micrometer, not a caliper, which can introduce small errors into the measurement.
One might think I do not give enough credit for others not knowing how to use a telescoping gage, but I had to teach at least two employees to do it in spite of the fact that they supposedly had apprentice training. You cannot feel around in a bore with the gage after the first "over center", the effect would be to cause the gage to telescope somewhat and lead to an undersize reading.
 
T Bredehoft said:
Bob. So glad to hear you call them Snap Gages. We always called them that at work, but Telescoping seems to be the common term here, Snap or Pop, either one is fine with me.
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Look in the tool catalogs such as B&S and Starrett, they are called telescoping gages in every catalog that I have seen, a snap gage is something completely different, they are a fixed gage for gaging outside diameters, measuring as a caliper does, and may have stepped measuring surfaces for go/no go tolerences.
 
John, I take my readings just like you described and seem to get fairly consistent measurements.
The spacer is done except for parting off. I will do that tomorrow. It was cold in my garage/shop yesterday and I don't feel like spending another cold afternoon. Will part it off tomorrow. Once this is done I will start on my taper attachment. I have a separate thread for that.
 
Consistent measurements is what it is all about, good th hear that you are there; second point is that dial or digital calipers may be close, but so many times not close enough, for me, vernier tools can be trusted to a thousandth, if of a good make and condition; an old employee and friend refers to them, as his "very nears".
 
I've never seen flat ended ones either. This is one item where quality makes a difference. I had a chinese set that were rough, hours of deburring and polishing would probably made them usable. I bought a set of Starret that were surprisingly not that expensive. The difference was night and day. Smooth drag when setting them in the hole and snug up nice for the micrometer to measure them.
Measuring them with a calliper could be tough, the rounded faces sit nice between the flat anvils of a micrometer.

Greg
 
Coming in very late here. The spacer setup you have is very common where the engineers actually give a crap about fatigue life. A large radius on the spindle, then a slip fit spacer to provide the needed square shoulder for the bearing. You can likely pick up a replacement spacer (and bearing set) from your local trailer supply company.
 
f350ca said:
I've never seen flat ended ones either. This is one item where quality makes a difference. I had a chinese set that were rough, hours of deburring and polishing would probably made them usable. I bought a set of Starret that were surprisingly not that expensive. The difference was night and day. Smooth drag when setting them in the hole and snug up nice for the micrometer to measure them.
Measuring them with a calliper could be tough, the rounded faces sit nice between the flat anvils of a micrometer.

Greg
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Yes, a micrometer is the most convenient tool to measure a telescoping gage with, dial or digital or vernier calipers also would serve, but as I said, are not the preferred tool from the standpoint of accuracy, at least in my experience I'd not trust any of them, except the vernier caliper any closer than a thousandth or two, especially for inside measurements; every dial or digital caliper that I have owned, whether Starrett or Mitotoyo that I have ever owned measured accurately with the inside jaws, always measuring undersize, I'd always stone the nibs off carefully until the ID/OD readings were the same.
I recently came by a set of B&S telescoping gages that have one handle and interchangeable heads; one nice thing is that they fit into a small box, taking up much less space than the ordinary type and also they have a longer handle than comparable Starrett models, and even nicer, there is an extra long handle that fits them, permitting measurements in deep holes.
 
Randy, I looked and looked and searched and searched all to no avail on finding the spacer. I was able to find usable grease seals off of a Mazda truck. But no spacer. The spacer is metric, 45 mm OD 30 mm ID 8 mm wide, and the spindle is also metric. Don't know what car the spindle came off of. I also tried searching by the bearing part numbers without success as what cars they were used on. This left me with no alternative other than making the spacer.
 
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