Technical Have to heat one King Pin Bushing every lube job

Can't get flow out the top of an upper bushing - have to torch heat until grease "boils" and then it flows. Have to do this every time I lube.

Maybe I should push a whole cartridge through it??? (I'm guessing the lubrication grooves are all clogged with dried out grease.)

...just thinking:

• pop the "freeze plug" off the top and try to work a .0015 feeler gauge between the pin and bushing and try to "s****e" out deposits.
• heat it up and pool penetrating oil on top of pin hoping will work its way into deposits.
• I'm getting grease flow out the bottom of the bushing - maybe that's good enough???

ALSO, where to buy the Relief Fitting on that freeze plug that keeps it from popping off when greasing.

 

Remove the pin, clean out the grease grooves and re ***emble. Make sure the hole in the bushing lines up with the grease zerk.

 

Take it apart and fix it right. There is a good possibility that it’s not grease that’s causing this, it might be corrosion or a bushing failure.


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Jack the wheel to take some of the weight off the bushing before lubing.
Phil

 

Yeah, try removing the weight when greasing first. Lots easier to remove the wheel than the whole ***embly.

 

Might try changing your grease. What type are you using?






Bones

 

I have a very special grease that I use for king pins. It has solved my problems several times. But I don’t use it everywhere as it costs $25 a tube.






Bones

 

I always do it with the wheels off - actually, to minimize what comes out the bottom of the top bushing, would want a very heavy load hanging on the knuckle. So jacked up, tires on or off is probably negligible.

UPDATE: Did the torch thing again this year (probably the 3rd year) and it definitely took less heat. This time grease started coming out the top relief fitting long before the grease boiled. I pumped maybe 10 pumps into it and it also produced some old grease - again, looks like I'm incrementally getting the old grease out.

I'm using a CAT 5% moly EP grease (went through a lot of trouble finding 5% locally). Saw some Valvoline Cobalt that looked really impressive. What's the $25 stuff?

NOTE: I've seen lube specs as low as every 3 months or 1000 miles for old cars with kingpins. Which really makes me wonder since after a lube job, steering is much easier and then it slowly gets stiffer - I grease every year and drive about 4000 miles a year.

 

So you're only greasing it once a year? That's not frequent enough.

Heating the joint is adding to your problem, the oil in the grease is oxidizing causing the grease to stiffen and solidify in place. Try a different grease, something other than the Cat Desert Gold. There are several products on the market that are designed for extended service intervals, maybe try one of them.

 

Take it apart and repair it correctly.


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The grease I use in king pins and spring shackles is Thixo grease. I think I spelled it right. It is produced by the “ Power up” company.






Bones

 

I think BJR (post #2) nailed it. I'd bet the bushing hole is not exactly aligned with the zerk fitting

 

Hole cannot be NOT aligned because grease flows out the bottom of the bushing like 10x more than out the top. The problem as been getting the grease to flow out both ends of the bushing.
I am optimistic since this time it took much less heat to get things flowing. AND an amount of old grease came out too.

NOTE: I'm going to post a new thread: How to grease on jackstands and not end up with grease all over the place.

 

Lots of times , on kingpins the grease is only going to flow out of the top or bottom. Grease like any liquid is going to flow to line of least resistance. Same thing with leaf springs. Sometimes you get equal grease out of both sides, if everything is perfect.






Bones

 

Jack it up first if that doesn't work change out zerk if that doesn't work take it apart.