Hey fellas, I'm fairly certain my kingpins are not just worn out but broken. Now, the forum for 61-71 Dodge trucks seems to agree it's better to just have a shop press 'em in. Does anyone know any shops in the so cal L.A. I.E. or O.C area that's good for pressing them in/ machining the spindles? The closer to Los Angeles the better. Or what do you guys think about knocking them in? It's the '63 Dodge 1/2 ton in my avatar pic. Any help would be greatly appreciated, this is my daily driver and I don't want it off the road too long so I'm trying to streamline this process as much as possible, thanks guys.
Never done kingpins personally but my experience in trying to pound things in when they should be machined leads me to say that you should just bite the bullet and pay to get them pressed in.
your going to have to ream the bushings to size, so if you don't have a reamer you will need someone to do it for you. removing the king pins can be a challenge but you don't need any special tools.
Press WHAT in? The bushings maybe but certainly not the kingpin. Once the bushings are in place they need to be reamed or honed to just barely allow the pins to be pushed in by hand. The pin locks in the axle with a set screw.
Seems to me it would take a awful lot of force to break a kingpin, like maybe hitting a brick wall at full speed? Even then, I doubt one would actually break. Beat2Hell: The new bushings need to be pressed in, not the pins themselves. And after they're pressed in they need to be cut (reamed) to size to fit the kingpin. Once properly sized, the kingpin is hand-fitted.
There was a time a good while back when imported replacement king pins were being sold which were not correctly heat treated. They were brittle and tended to break. It's possible that at some point one of those king pins ended up on his truck.
I DO KINGPINS ON BIG TRUCKS DAILY, Yes the bushings have to be driven out and new back in , no we do not use a press we do it by hand with a driving tool and a hammer, then ream the bushings til the pin just fits and can slide through ,SHOULD NOT BE SLOOPY! Then make sure new pin can slide in the axle with no slop or the axle may need welded or sleeved!
Any auto machine shop should be able to help you. They will press out the old king pins, press the bushings into the spindles, hone to size on a Sunnen hone and press the new king pins in place. The last set I had done took about an hour. Take the brakes complete with backing plates off the axle and hang them from the frame with a coat hanger wire. Do not let the weight hang on the flex hoses. Then, unbolt the U bolts off the springs and take the axle with spindles to the machine shop. Do yourself a favor and clean off all the old grease and dirt unless you want to pay them $85 an hour to do it. Unless you have a press and machine shop this is the easiest and best way to do it. Do the job right and keep the front end greased and you should not have to do it again for 100,000 miles or more.
I wouldn't fight the things..... Take the whole ***embly to a good local machine shop...have them press and ream the bushings, and fit the pins. A lot less headache !!! And worth the $ . 4TTRUK
Thanks guys I appreciate all the responses. I got an estimate for about 350.00 if I bring in the axle. Is that what I should expect to pay anywhere? Also , what do you guys think of the nylon ones, the parts place told me those just go in without any machine work. Thanks again fellas <input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input jscode="leoInternalChangeDone()" onclick="if(typeof(jsCall)=='function'){jsCall();}else{setTimeout('jsCall()',500);}" id="jsProxy" type="hidden">
I paid 90 and i brought my own kingpins for my F1...pretty much any machine shop should be able to handle it...look for one close to you in the yellow pages alot of older shops dont show up on a google search
Shop around. Big truck places can do these (if they can do ones this small), as big-rigs still use these. Nylon kingpin bushings? They would last about 60 seconds, I think.
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