According to the parts books, the floating kingpin bushing design was used on many of the
GM vehicles from 1934 to 1962. Corvette used them from its inception in 1953 to 1962, the
½ ton light trucks at least until 1959, I don’t have any documentation beyond that and the
passenger cars thru 1954.
One thing that comes to mind is that allowing the bushing to float doubles the bearing
surface in rotation, which in theory would double the life of the bearing.
So about all I’ve got to add is that there must have been a reason the GM engineers
thought so highly of the design for all those years and millions upon millions of vehicles and
miles driven.
Just so this doesn’t take off in the wrong direction I’d like to say for some of our new
comers, Dave is one of our much respected and highly regarded contributors to the forum,
so I’m not trying to get into a pizzing contest with him. But…for the sake of discussion, is it
possible Dave, that the vintage cars that you’ve restored are not chalking up tens of
thousands of miles in daily use and that’s why you’re customers aren’t experiencing
excessive wear in their kingpin bushings?
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL
