Can are cars (full weight) use aluminum or chromoly spindles. Trying to lighting up the front end and I have access to a full fab shop. I have ls1 brakes up front and they feel like it weighs more than stock.

 

You would be hard pressed to build a aluminum spindle that would be strong enough, only way to make aluminum work would be to forge a piece and thats huge money.

Leave the stock spindle, its not very heavy, only about 11 or 12 lbs when modified for a brake upgrade and cleaned up a bit, and its really strong. You could build a welded one like what racecraft makes, but it will never be as strong as stock, not by a long shot.

Your best bet would be to look into 2 pc rotors and lighter wheels.

 

Im talking using the strongest aluminum. Cast iron is not the strongest metal. But the only way I can see it being strong enough to work is to make a bolt on hub spindles. I ask because they built a whole under carriage for a car out of billet aluminum, spindles as well. It would be sweet to have some 15lbs spindle brake combo.

 

Save your money, go buy a C6 Z06, it'll be cheaper.

If my sarcasm was missed I will re-iterate. You'd be better off spending that kind of money on other weight savings mods. Hood, light weight battery, aka other lightweight stuff that will give you far more gain for the money spent.

 

Unsprung weight is worth it's weight in gold over sprung weight. Spindles are unsprung, as are brakes, a-arms, struts, wheels etc..

 

While this is understood there are times when reliability trumps saving 1 or 2 pounds every time. And spindles are one of those items.

Potholes and other street hazards are hell on parts, and a lightweight spindle just isn't worth it.

Lightweight racing rims really wouldn't survive on a street car either, they are too weak.

 

very true... 1-2 pounds is so slight for the risk of busting a spindle and crashing. IF there was a way to have a spindle that is lighter but as strong or stronger than stock then it would be expensive, but still a viable option, such as the forged piece of aluminum that 86TA just mentioned, but if you have the money and really love thirdgens, if the option is there, then that would improve handling slightly.

 

Of course the answer is yes. But if you have to ask the question, then you aren't qualified to design and analyze them yourself.

How much weight are you looking to get out of them? They are 11lbs stock.

 

5 6 lbs no I cant make them but ppl will help do so. If it would cost more than 1k for raw materials that no. Labor will be free.

 

The pin itself that the hub rides on is pressed into the knuckle. The knuckle itself may be cast, but I'm guessing it's a forging. You could probably get by with aluminum for the knuckle as long as you have a shrink fitted 4340/4130 heat treated pin. IMO the best way to do this is buy an off the shelf spindle from coleman and change the bolt on UBJ mount to a bolt on strut mount.

In terms of lightweight brakes, the easiest way is to just run the wilwood calipers for the stock stock rotor/hub setup. I have a JRZ (now kodiak I think) setup on my car and it weighs the same as stock with 1.25x12.2" rotors. Eventually I'll probably replace the 7lb calipers with dynalights and run ultralight wilwood rotors for a whole weight savings of 4-6lbs over stock per side, but with much better rotors.

If you wanted to build something similar you can run wilwood hubs with an 8x7.0" rotor adapter and bolt on whatever size of rotor you want with a lightweight dynalight or equivalent caliper.

 

if you want to get rid of some unsprung weight, then ditch the strut altogether, put in an adjustable lightweight upper control arm from any of the many circle track suppliers, and run an AFX forged aluminum spindle.. this also allows you better of the caster and camber curves...

 

I do alignments on stock cars, yall talking over me lol. I can bolt up copy design stuff like that. I seen it on a VW thats what the idea came from.