The King Pin blues

[luvrbus]

They go down and come out the bottom

[eagle19952]

the steel that you are jacking against would better serve if it were rotated up 90 degrees, and wider/laminated with another... same on the bottom. the jack pressure is doing more to bend the steel than push the pin.

dumb question...how many grease fittings are on the steering ?...top bottom and or the center section that you heated ?

[mikke60]

I don't know if you got it out yet.
When i did mine, i built a press, apllied heat, and yelled alot
Finally i removed a few more srts till i could get a good swing at it.
2 shots at it with a 12 lb hammer, and it dropped out.
Good luck

[Brian Diehl]

Yeah - King Pin is out!  Yes - the king pin is pressed down and out the bottom.  I reinforced my jacking "jig" both top and bottom.  Then I jacked until I hit maximum pressure with my 12 ton jack.  I then got the torch out and started heating the end of the axle.  60 seconds of heat and the pin popped. 

The pin looks to me to be toast.  The bottom of the pin is all corroded and even appears to be heat stained.  The inner upper bushing just slid right out.  Both the lower and upper outer bushings are not original.  They are the spiral style of bushing as shown in the video posted by eagle.

I'm going to bring the king pin and bushing up to JD @ C&J Bus on Tuesday and see if he thinks the spindle can be saved.  I'm hoping it can be!

[Brian Diehl]

Lower spindle bushing

[Brian Diehl]

Upper spindle outer bushing

[Brian Diehl]

Upper spindle inner bushing

[Brian Diehl]

Finally - the parts diagram blow up for reference

Notice the upper inner and outer bushings labeled #2 and #18.

[eagle19952]

Well...
part of the reason that I asked about the spiral bushing is now to determine how long ago it was installed.

Stemco says that those need to be greased twice as often.

I am thinking they went with those because they were over worn.. hope not.

Question... what is bolt #7 if it isn't a wedge bolt ? steering stop ?
Did you loosen #26 and #27 ?

Glad you got it

[bevans6]

Bolt 7 is an adjustable steering stop.  One on each side.  I don't think it has anything to do with the king pin, but I could very well be wrong.

Brian

[biff]

Brian on my 77 8 i changed my steering arm there was a recall and thay came out with a heaver one.i would look into that since you have it apart. maybe someone else knows more about it.

[Brian Diehl]

Correct - bolt seven is simply a steering stop.  It has nothing to do with the king pin.

[Scott & Heather]

Brian, if I may ask, what symptoms made you pull your kingpin in the first place?


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[Brian Diehl]

Scott - I found out the king pin was loose while checking to see if there was any play in the wheel bearings.  This was last fall.  There wasn't an extreme amount of play, but enough I was wanting to get it fixed.  I had C&J Bus Repair replace my driver's side king pin about a decade ago.  At that time they found that spindle had nylon bushing in it.  JD told me that when the nylon bushing start to wear they tend to ruin the spindle.  This was what happened to my driver's side spindle.  When he discovered the nylon bushings on the driver side he told me if I ever noticed wear on the passenger side to replace as soon as possible to avoid having to replace that spindle as well.  Hence, when I found movement in the king pin last fall I determined I would prioritize replacing the king pin. 

Now with the hub seal leaking problem I've had I recently tore the whole hub apart again.  I figured since I was half way to the king pin I might as well go the rest of the way and replace it at the same time since everything was already torn down.  I'm glad I did.  I didn't find nylon bushings thankfully, but it was still time to be replaced.  It wasn't bad enough to be any sort of mechanical issue or danger to anyone else and that is why I didn't tear it apart immediately upon finding it last fall.

Today I took the spindle in to C&J Bus and they were able to press in new bushings, ream the bushings and send me on my way with a new matching king pin.  Tonight I got the spindle installed and things are starting to look good again.  I still need to reinstall the brake spider and then install the hub.  I can't install the hub until I get the new hub seals (Scott Seal Plus XL).  Those should arrive later this week.  I'm hoping I'll have everything back together early this weekend ready for a test drive.  Things are looking good!

[Oonrahnjay]

... Things are looking good!

     Nice work, Brian.  And congrats on the success.  Thanks for keeping us informed; I learned a lot from this thread.