Well, the old '51's tires have been showing wear on the outsides for some time and I was told the king pins were at fault. Yesterday, I got the truck jacked up and the first wheel and brake plate pulled, then started to work on changing out the king pins. Got the plugs out and the nut off the locking bolt and sprayed everything down with PB Blaster and went in for dinner and to let the blaster work. A half hour later, I went back out in the 90* heat and did something I'm ashamed to even tell about. After looking everything over and sticking all the bolts in Ziploc bags to keep them from running away, I commenced to pounding the king pin out. It moved about 3/32" before I missed the socket I was using for a drift and opened up my thumb with my 4# beater. Went in, washed and bandaged it, mad as hell at myself for missing what I was whacking (I'm a retired Ironworker who learned long ago to not miss when beating a bull or barrel pin, and to NEVER hold a pin for somebody else who's swinging the hammer). Where was I looking, anyway? Don't know. But after I calmed down and took some Tylenol, I started thinking about why it moved a little, then no more. Right about then, I got a sick feeling in my gut. After lunch, the first step was to drive out the locking bolt, and I forgot to do it. I was beating the hell out of the king pin while the locking pin was still in it. !@#%!!! So this morning I went back out to drive said locking bolt out. With the nut on the end, I started tapping, then pounding until the nut went crooked. When I got it off I saw that the bolt had started to bend. Knowing that it wouldn't drive out now that it wasn't straight, I grabbed my sawzall and cut it as close to the axle as I could without hitting it. Then I grabbed my 5/16" drift pin and attempted to drive it out. It seemed to be moving, but after checking the other side, I'm convinced it hasn't moved a bit. I don't want to have to pull the axle, and I'm trying to come up with an idea for some sort of press that I could use where it sits. I thought about it and then wondered if I'd pounded the king pin last night into the locking bolt, so I started trying to drive the pin back up to clear the lock bolt. With not much room down there (about a foot) swinging the beater and holding the bolt I'm using for a drift pin isn't allowing much swing. So, here are my 3 questions at this point-
A) Could that locking bolt be driven out from the other side? It was rounded and protruding from the axle about a sixteenth of an inch, so I ground it off flush with the axle face. This is IF the king pin isn't jammed into it from last night's pound fest.
B) Has anyone ever fabricated a small press, either hydraulic or bolt type (run down with an impact wrench) that I could build to push the bolt out?
C) After I get that dang bolt out, has anyone built a home made press that works on king pins? If so, how'd you fab it up? Actually, I'm thinking the king pins won't be so bad as my lock bolt fiasco. I'm actually seeing the pin and bushings moving pretty freely when I turn the spindle, so I'm hoping the all night PB Blaster soak might have helped out there.
If anybody has any good ideas or tricks that may help, please pass them this way. Right now I'm feeling pretty stupid (and sore) for getting the cart before the horse by driving that king pin before the lock bolt. Another example why, whenever my wife yells "Dinner's ready!", my reply should always be "I'll eat later. I might forget and do something really dumb if I stop right now." Hindsight is always 20/20.
