[DeTomaso] Front upright question

[Mike Drew]

Yup, that’s exactly correct. The 1971 cars used different spindles that incorporated the steering arms and were side-specific. Then they used spindles with separate steering arks that were nominally identical except the driver’s side (I think?) was reverse thread. Later they did away with that and both sides used normal righty-tighty. That meant the same spindle was used on both sides. 

Spindles are rare and precious, and are worth saving if at all possible. Why are you changing yours? Definitely keep the old one even if it’s not perfect. 

Last time I was at the De Tomaso factory I saw a huge crate holding hundreds and hundreds of spindle forgings. They were covered in light surface rust but extremely useable. They just needed the finish machining processes performed. I hope Wilkinson was able to recover those and they didn’t just wind up getting scrapped. :(

Mike

Sent from my iPad

> On Apr 20, 2021, at 15:13, Forest Goodhart <forestg at att.net> wrote:
> 
>    The parts book shows right and left side the same for drilled and side
>   specific for the earlier. I believe the only thing that makes them side
>   specific is that one has a left hand thread and one a right hand
>   thread. You should be good with what you have.
> 
>   On Tuesday, April 20, 2021, 05:53:18 PM PDT, George B
>   <gkb1968 at hotmail.com> wrote:
>     All,
>     I need to replace my left side front spindle and only have a good
>   used
>     spare right side.  Does anyone know for sure if left and right
>     uprights/spindles have the same geometry?  Looks like the only
>     differences is the bolt on arms for outer tie rod and reverse
>   threaded
>     spindle on the newer cars.  I have an early car with right hand
>   thread
>     on both sides anyway).
>     Also, any place I could find torque spec for those tie rod arm
>     attachment bolts?
>     Any info would be greatly appreciated.
>     Thanks,
>     George
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