In regards to the king pins, as usual 3B has been a great source of information... he was kind enough to send me the following which I will add to this post for future reference and in case anyone else ever requires this information...
From 3B:
Whether or not the axle "has" to be removed to work on it depends on a few things, kingpins can be a real bear to remove sometimes, so it might be nice to take it out, so you can take it to a press to remove the kingpins, without the pins removed you can't measure them to see if they are standard or oversize, so you don't know which parts to order [if you can find them], if the axle bore is worn it will have to be machined oversize, so it would have to come out to be machined.
I would not remove the axle until I at least tried to remove the kingpins with it in place. If the axle ultimatly has to come out, you must replace the "U" bolts, most spring shops either have access to or can fabricate new "U" bolts, hope that helps.
and as usual it DOES help... thanks Bobb... Hopefully we can avoid pulling out the axle when the time comes! Much appreciated!
~Trev
