What type of grease??

NJT 5573 · February 27, 2009, 08:18:40 PM

Boat trailer wheel bearing grease by Stalube will never do you wrong. It stays longer than any other grease and you will never pump water out of any fitting that you put boat trailer wheel bearing grease into.

Its not good to change greases I'm told, so pick one and stick with it.

Gary LaBombard · February 28, 2009, 05:11:26 AM

Here is some examples of lack of lubrication, (1973 05 Eagle)!

Gary

rgrauto · February 28, 2009, 08:02:53 AM

Hello Gary,
I need to replace the king pins on my mci5a soon. So, I have a few questions.
Did you heat the axle to drive the king pins out? Also, I guess the bushings will need to be honed to fit the king pin. Gary, or anyone else that has an answer,
will mci be the best or cheapest place to buy parts?

I'm looking forward to playing some music, how about you?

Thanks,
Glen

Gary LaBombard · February 28, 2009, 10:22:46 AM

Glen,
I had to manufacture a press to press out horizontally the old frozen in pins and man what a job it was. The heat did not help which I tried on one side and hitting with sledge, it was too dangerous. But the press I made worked but was dangerous also working all alone. I will include photos here to give you idea what I did. I also had to rebore out the parts and put in new bushings and have yet to reassemble all so I can't tell you any more than that. The parts I purchased were from Jefferson for Eagle buses of coarse and not cheap. Research from others with your bus model that had this done as I cannot give you honest information what to do in your particular case.

Truly not a job to do alone if you don't have to, very dangerous to do if not trained as well. Recommend if possible to afford done by others more professional, consider it and save your body parts. I hope this helps in some deciding.

Oh, Ready for music also, I had the most fun ever of all at Palmetto with you last year.

Gary

gus · February 28, 2009, 01:23:52 PM

John,

You can fly most anything less than 1230 lbs gross weight without a medical. All you need is your old license (which never expires) and your driver's license. There are a few other rules, but not many. VFR day only, two place and fixed gear are a few of them but that is fine with me. This is called a Light Sport License and the airplanes are called LSA. The 8A is in this category and is still a bargain. Check it out on the internet.

I lucked out when I sold the Navion in '05 just before the fuel crunch hit. Avgas is now $6-12/gal!! I use auto fuel in the Champ which is probably better than the old avgas 80 it was built for.

So, I just putt putt around the country enjoying myself and burning about 3.5gph of auto fuel. Can't beat that. I live in a rural area so I don't have to worry about controlled air space. Living near a large city is a real pain.

I always wanted a 195 and a Stinson Reliant among others. This is my second Champ after a Stinson 108-3 and the Navion and the most fun of all. For about 20 years we used the Stinson and Navion for traveling which we now do in the bus. Flying was fun and fast but weather was a pain. Very few weather problems with the bus and having your own house with you is really great.

JohnEd · February 28, 2009, 02:52:55 PM

Gus and Junkman,

Nice save!

John

JohnEd · February 28, 2009, 02:56:41 PM

Gary,

In a pre purchase inspection would you expect that the inspector would remove that bottom inspection plate and look over the king pins?

What is the number of hours I would expect to be charged for that job?

Thanks,

John

gmbusguy1 · February 28, 2009, 02:58:40 PM

Gary, In your photos it looks as though the King Pin is still installed. am I looking at the thing incorrectly???

Chris

gmbusguy1 · February 28, 2009, 03:01:35 PM

How does a Horizontal king pin work ? I am not familiar

Help me out here to understand

Chris

luvrbus · February 28, 2009, 03:09:14 PM

Gary's photo is of the upper and lower A frame pins and bushings on a Eagle the king pins are vertical like others good luck

Gary LaBombard · February 28, 2009, 03:42:22 PM

Chris,
In my "Eagle" Maint. parts book it lists the two pins for the control arm to be upper & lower King pins which in my wheel assembly are mounted horizontally. One upper one is about 1" diameter and the lower one is about 1 1/4"Diameter. There is a dust cover over each end of both pins which is easily removeable with a screw driver. Would I recommend inspecting this? I sure wish I had and anyone easily can now if their steering feels a little loose going down the road. You cannot jack up the wheel off the ground and shake the wheel for play like a car, the parts are way, way to heavy and interconnected to show the slop even as bad as mine was. But you remove the upper control arm assembly and you lose the solid connections of all the parts assembled and can shake the hell out of it easily. Removal of the actual inspection plate on the bottom & top of the actual king pin is a sure way to see what is going on with your vertical king pins on both sides of the bus and look for any lack of lubrication.

Removing the dust covers on a Eagle front end is surely recommended to see if there is any wear before disassembly like I showed in my photos on the Eagle upper control arm with assembled horizontal king pins, you will easily see the two horizontal control arm pins worn to one side of the bushings on both ends of the pins. You will also see there is or is not any grease and mine was sticky dirt!!

Again I recommend not o judge your or any Eagle the same as I have had to mine, your bus may not have had the abuse mine did, all the things I point out are FYI only to consider especially a newbie wanting to inspect one. I just don't want it perceived that all Eagles are rustbuckets like some try to interpet what I say as being just that. I am getting very antsy at wanting to drive my bus after all this time and prove no matter how abused our buses may have been, they can be put back into many more years of pleasure with lots of TLC if needed and you are able.

John, I cannot give you a guess to the number of hours to do this job, I was and still am a total amateur at all this, I learned the hard way and sometimes take up to 1-2 days just staring at something like this for hours on end before tackling it to be sure I can't get hurt, or try to prevent anyhow. When you come to this heavy duty disassembly and reassembly it is wise to try to get a estimate price from a professional if you feel it is needed. Removing the two pins on each side of the bus that I did took all of my 20 ton capacity of my jack to remove the rusted pin assembly. Man when it broke loose, so did the excitement nearly in my pants when you are under that wheel well not knowing what to expect. Get a price, get a price for safety.

Hope this all helps.

Gary

Gary LaBombard · February 28, 2009, 03:45:45 PM

John,
If you need any other information please feel free to email me directly with what ever I can help with.
Gary

luvrbus · February 28, 2009, 04:08:55 PM

Gary your right about Eagle calling the upper and lower king pins and bushing I never knew why they did that.There is a trick to remove those I will show you if I ever get to meet you. good luck

johns4104s · February 28, 2009, 04:13:42 PM

I had a hard time removing the king pins from my 4104. I had to bounce them out with a sledge hammer.

John

Gary LaBombard · February 28, 2009, 04:43:34 PM

Thanks Cliff,
but man I never ever want to do this job again. Maybe you could submit your method on Eagleinternational it surely must be easier and safer than that I posted here on MAK. How I wish I had any information on something like this when I removed my upper and lower control arm king pins.
Gary