Sept 3, 2023 - Chasse Update - King Pin Battle - Got home after a day out canoeing, visiting Heritage Park in Calgary and out for supper with the wife and wasn't going to do any work on the truck tonight, however, have been stressing about getting my king pins out. There's a bunch of play in them so decided to replace them. Had posted in the driveline forum and read a few other topics along with the tech tips. The point of confusion I had was one of the tech tips mentioned a c-clip holding the dust cap in, but couldn't see a c-ring on mine. I ended up establishing that the dust cap was a malleable cap that was concave and hammered into place so it spread out over a larger area and held under the lip where the king pin slides into on the spindle assembly. So no c-clip as I had observed.
Well, couldn't sit on the couch knowing all I had to do was pull a drill out and drill into the dust cap to get it pried off. Drilled a small hole (first photo), but don't have a punch set so tried my countersink tool for countersinking baseboard nails. Broke that straight away. As an aside, that was kind of sad because for some reason, of all the tools my dad had, that was my favourite when I was very young. Was just fascinated by it for some reason. I think it was the knurling on it. Although the one I broke was not his, so buying a new one is no biggie.
After searching the garage for something else, I figured I would just drill consecutively bigger holes until I could try pry the dust cap off with a screwdriver (pictures 2, 3 and 4). Worked like a charm. The dust cap, being ductile, is easy to drill though and it's pretty obvious when the bit gets all the way through.
So, I was left with the dust caps off, but still no punch set to try drive the king pin out. And if you read the forums, there are some horror stories about getting them out, including 40 tons of pressure on a 50 ton press. At this point I remembered I had bought a 9/16" socket that I could wreck pulling my front Jeep Wrangler axles when I had to replace the front differential seals. So, I walk over to my truck front axle with a pair of vice grips holding a 9/16" socket, a three pound hammer and the thought of the 50 ton press running through my mind thinking I was way out matched.
Lined it up and gave it a test whack. Nothing. A couple more and still nothing, or did it move a bit? Gave it another whack and the socket went flying. Retrieved the socket and got up off my rollie stool to line up a substantially harder whack than I had yet tried. And . . .
It moved! About a quarter inch. A few more swings and I was at the depth the socket would go (Picture 5). So I'll head to bed without getting it fully out, but will sleep soundly knowing I solved the problem. Not even going to start thinking about getting the bushings out tonight, or at least try not to.
