1997 C3500 belltech 3" drop spindles, ongoing brake issues.

[busta9876]

Okay, about 2014 I bought a belltech drop kit, just the 3/4 drop. Spindle up front, and shackle and spring mount change in the rear. Going to keep this short, get to the point.

drivers side brakes keep pulling, overheating, wearing uneven, pins stick in caliper after repeated bushing replacement and greasing.

I've replaced caliper 2 times, brake hose once, pads 4 times, turned rotor twice. All this in in last 3 years messing with this. Honestly was getting a little discouraged with the truck because of the issues. (It's Cummins swapped by the way)

I've been sent 2 additional spindles by Belltech tech support and STILL HAVE THE SAME issues. I originally thought it was a problem with the opening the caliper sits in being too wide. There was a gap at the top of caliper where it is supposed to touch the spindle when braking. I kept having issues with the caliper bushings squishing out, and pins locking up, uneven pad wear. I could grease them up, new pads, and be okay for a few weeks, only to have same issues come back. It was only just this week I figured out the real issue.

I've found the bolts holes for the caliper pins is not machined correctly, causing caliper to **** one direction when bolts are tightened. This causes pad to contact rotor crooked, causing uneven pad wear.

I immediately ordered two new spindles from DJM Suspension and installed them tonight. Everything is perfect, and lines up great. Belltech tells me they have sold over 500 sets of the part# 3700 spindles and never heard of this issue, yet I got three in a row from them.

Anyone else having issues like me or do I somehow end up with all the weird problems. I'm glade I got this figured out now, renewed my interest in keeping going on doing stuff to my truck.

xc_hide_links_from_guests_guests_error_hide_media

 

[busta9876]

some pictures I sent to belltech support.

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[KO1960]

My daughter also had a poor experience with Belltech. She has a 1990 GMC 1500 with drop spindles installed by the original owner probably in the early 90's. While driving home from work one day, the front end started shaking, so she pulled over as the front end dropped to the ground.

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

The spindles at this point were 20+ years old but came with a lifetime warranty. Belltech didn't want to honor the warranty intially, but my daughter's a bulldog. She kept at them for weeks until they relented and sent her a new spindle. Belltech made her sign a release, before they would send the spindle. It all ended well, and she hasn't had any problems since, but it could have been much worse.

 

[someotherguy]

Mind-blowing in both examples. It's hard to justify those problems when looked at on their own but in the grand scheme of things BellTech has probably sold tens of thousands of those half ton spindles, and at least a few thousand of the one ton spindles, without failure (that we've heard of, anyway.) Them being the big name in the business has a lot of exposure.

It sucks both of y'all had issues but at least in the latter example those spindles had many trouble-free years before the failure, which is a pretty unusual failure mode.

Definitely not excusing BellTech in this example as I'm usually a very big supporter of their products. Any brand can have a failure. I still think they're superior in most ways to the competitors though other brands have their merits as well.

Richard

 

[Seanthemechanic]

I just had the same happen to me a few weeks ago. Cheap Chinese junk drop spindles. I just went with a set of Belltech spindles due to them being the best in the business and this being my daily driver. I was lucky I wasn’t on the highway. Spindle broke same way


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk