Broken spindle
 

Not sure if this is a racing first for the 370Z, but this weekend I put a wheel off the edge of the track and hit a big *** hole. There was an almighty bang which was the spindle upright shearing just below where it bolts to the upper ball joint. Haven't fully checked the car over yet, but at this point it looks like that's the only thing that broke. It looks pretty silly sitting on the trailer with -15 degrees of camber on the front right. I was actually pretty lucky to keep it off the wall given that I had very little steering with a floppy front wheel on that side. Got my first ride on the flatbed :)

Didn't video that session unfortunately, turned the camera on but forgot to click record.

Here's what broke (actual pictures tomorrow)
http://www.the370z.com/attachment.ph...1&d=1341330297

first i've heard of... those things are pretty robust o_O

What arms and ball joint are you currently running?

I have the SPC upper control arms and ball joints which are steel. The ball joint was freshly replaced this year and is still attached to the top of the spindle arm :) Still waiting for the Doran/NMS arms :)

i wanna put em on my frontier :stirthepot:

I know .... Trust me ...I know
This little incident put us back buuuut... I know we have to make some more cuz that hit bent the RF arm something fierce.
But ... Patience may pay off as possibly our other outter joint may be completed with the new arms which will give additional caster.

Wow. That's one hell of a break...

Wow. Crazy. Musta been a helluva hole

Very cool, thanks - I'll do it as soon as you can make them. Your own race-car rebuild takes priority of course!

Replacing the spindle is a PITA, everything attaches to it. Time consuming but easy I suppose.

Just waiting for my part to be overnighted from Japan, or in this case, back ordered from Texas with ground delivery. :shakes head:

The hole is friggin' deep. It is fairly well known for tearing up cars, and I knew about it but I guess never really realized just how bad it was until I hit it. I should have gone out there when the track closed and took a picture, but when you can see it on google earth you know it is bad. I hadn't done a track walk here since last year so didn't realize it had got so bad. I've put 2 wheels off in other parts of the track and never had an issue.

Thats called a fire-truck hit (what starts in "F" and ends in "uck" ... Fire-truck of course).

Don;t think you hit a hole - more like a canyon ... great to hear your kept it off the concrete though ...

That's pretty wild there. I bet when it dropped of the upper control arm slammed into the inner fender there was no more travel so the spindle gave way at the weakest point. Glad you saved it.

Ouch man, at least you didnt hit anything

Link to carnage pics:
https://plus.google.com/photos/11278...IW3rejAmJrbhQE

Right front wheel is also bent.

Upper control arm smashed into the top of the fender but didn't seem to do any damage. No other damage that I can see yet, still pulling things apart.

Good God.