Originally Posted by Fibonachu
The short answer is none. You should not have any slop in the kingpins.

I just went through this on my 58. It felt like there was just barely enough movement to feel when I replaced the wheel bearings, so I lubed them up and put it back togetheonce I worked the new grease around and into the bushings, they got extremely floppy.

When I pulled them apart, the wear was 75% on the bushings and 25% on the kingpins themselves. I did not have to ream them for oversized bushings and they have zero play now.

Check your service manual about reaming. The TF 3100/3200 trucks do not require reaming the new bushings, but the larger ones do. I don't know about the AD setup offhand.

The one issue I ran into with the kingpin kit I got from Speedway was that it didn't have enough of the right size shims for me. The details are in the link in my signature, but my gap was too small for the thick shims and too large for the small shims they provided so I had to get some extras. Even with the extra shims, they were still cheaper than LMC and they had it all in stock.

Just trying to make myself clear for everyone to figure this out. I understand my truck should be just a slip fit for the bushing's and not have to press them in. My question was to wether to have the spindles reamed out to accept an oversized bushing. Not to ream out the new bushings. I understand they are already reamed for fit.
Here is what I currently have:

Old kingpin measures .877 inches
New kingpin measures .866 inches

Old bushing measures 1.05 inches outer diameter; .866 inches inner diameter
New bushing measures 1.05 inches outer diameter; .860 inches inner diameter

Spindle opening measures 1.05 inches inner diameter.

Hope this helps!


1953 Chevy 3100 1/2 Ton Pickup

Doug