The Kingpin Exercise

As you can see the front suspension was rough. After 57 years, parts wear out, I can attest to that. The before picture shows the front brake drum, shock absorber, leaf spring, axle, and engine. Besides the normal wear and tear there was some trauma to the right side of the truck as the leaf spring was broken at the rear spring eye. The job was to take it all apart and replace the worn components, without breaking the bank.

Taking the front end apart was not too hard, just dirty. You can see all the parts posed in perfect harmony. The biggest job was removing the bushings from the steering knuckle. Initially Brian offered to press them out. So I dutifully loaded my kingpin parts, steering knuckles, and axle in my car. However, due to work schedule conflicts I had the parts rolling around in the back of the car for three weeks before we could hook up.

Brian has more Big Boy Man Tools than anyone, that is all except for the special K357 Kingpin Bushing Reamer tool. It is critical to ream your bushings after they are inserted. While you might confuse this with polishing your nuts, you could say it is at the other end of the spectrum. Brian wisely suggested that I have a machine shop ream my bushing! Better safe than sorry is my motto.

Using a machine shop was a good idea, although it was hard to find one that would do it. I called regular shops then called automotive shops, they all said no, even the references they suggested did not work on kingpins. Finally I called R & R Speed shop, Yes! They did Kingpin bushings. Whoohoo and only $15 dollars each.

I took the parts down to R&R and dropped off the steering knuckles, the new kingpins, the old kingpins, because you never know what they really do in a speed shop, they might need the old ones for historical purposes. Then I brought in the front axle. This is when the salesperson gave me the look – the you really don’t know what you are doing, look. He says, “what is this for”?  I reply that you press the kingpin in the steering knuckles, through the axle. He replies that everyone knows that, but that is something you can do, Pilgrim.  Okay so I take my axle home and wait for them to press in the bushing. By this time I would be lost without an axle sliding around in the back of my car anyway.

Two days later, I picked up the parts, well I didn’t quite get it correct. It was $15 per bushing, 2 per knuckle, $60.  All in all a bargain, cause they slid in perfectly.

I followed the directions in the Shop Manual, put in a few shims and voila, the steering knuckle is attached to the axle. When I first got the truck, we towed it, from where the transporter dropped it off, to my house. It was steerable, barely. However, once we got the parts apart I could hardly move the spindle, now it is easy as pie - man does it feel smooth.

You can see it installed. Kingpin through the steering knuckle, attached to the axle, front bearings installed, brake backing flange, and steering linkage. Just like a hip replacement.

Happy Day