Technical Thrust Bearings on a 32 Heavy axle

I'm ***embling a new front end using this combination:

1932 undropped "Heavy" axle
1938 split bones
1938 spindles
F-1 Hubs
1940 backing plates and brakes
Buick 45 drums

In researching the ***embly I copied this from the tech archives:

Take the spindles to NAPA shop. Buy their kp set (Perfect Circle). Have their guy install the bushings and HONE them to size on his Sunnen con rod machine. Re***emble, with thrust bearing on the bottom with open side down.
Prepack bearing with grease. Use shims provided to reduce clearance between top of axle and spindle to around .015".
Install lock pin and stake with punch or tighten lock nut. Pay attention to direction of taper through axle. Reattach tie rod ends with new cotter pins, re***emble backing plates and brakes. Now's a good time to do shoes, drums and wheel cylinders, if needed
Re***emble hubs, repack bearings, new grease seals. New zerk fittings come with the kit. Make sure you shoot some grease in the spindles! Check front alignment. You're done.

My question is not with the new bushings but the order of ***embly. Didn't early axles have the bearing on the top? Should I add a thrust washer to the mix? Is there any reason not to ***emble the king pins in the way is was done later?

denver dave

 

If your using the 38 spindles you use the standard 37/40 kingpin kit which puts the bearing between the axle and the spindle on the bottom of the axle. Use the shims provided in the kit on the bottom to take up any vertical play. Everything else is the same, ream the bushings, put the kingpin in from the top and install the tapered keeper into the axle.

 

here is some pictures , will this help ?

 

Having the bearing on top would be useless...other than it just taking up space....it's a thrust bearing. There is no "thrust" on the top of the spindle....

 

The early axles did have the bearing at the top. The thrust was between the top of the spindle and the bottom of the cup at the top of the kingpin. But this only applies if using model A thru 36 spindles. Use kingpins to match your spindles and ***emble them how they would have been on the axle they left the factory with.

Hope that makes sense.

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It may be useless, as you say, but that was the way Henry Ford designed the ***embly on the 32 axle. My question was whether there was a reason to ***emble it the way it was originally designed.

 

It is not useless as originally designed. Think of it like this, once the kingpin lock is installed, the kingpin essentially becomes part of the axle. The downward force of the vehicle is transmitted through the axle and therefore the kingpin to the top of the spindle. Hence the heavy forged tops on those particular kingpins and the location of the thrust bearing there.
This arrangement was changed by Ford in 37.
In any event, unless you are using juice brakes on early spindles(28-36), just use the kingpin kit to match your spindles. The axle kingpin bosses are all effectively the same 28-48, so the changes were to the spindle.

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