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#11434 07/31/2003 3:43 AM | Joined: Mar 2002 Posts: 9,115 'Bolter | | 'Bolter Joined: Mar 2002 Posts: 9,115 | I feel like a new man tonight because I conquered my first kinpin. With two propane torches, several drifts and a sledge hammer, I beat the darn thing into submission!
Now my question is will the new one take the same kind of force going in ? Would putting it in the freezer the night before and warming up the axle help with the installation ? | | |
#11435 07/31/2003 3:55 AM | Joined: Feb 2001 Posts: 1,897 Member | | Member Joined: Feb 2001 Posts: 1,897 | That will help as will having it cleaned up before reassembly. Sounds like you have been having a lot of fun 
There is enough good in the worst of us and enough bad in the best of us that it does not behoove any of us to criticize the rest of us.
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Be yourself. If you are ever lost, It will be much easier to find yourself if you know who you are!
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#11436 07/31/2003 4:40 AM | | Anonymous Unregistered | | Anonymous Unregistered | We used a 20 ton press to get ours apart along with an acetylene torch to add some heat. Going together, everything was a light press fit.  | | |
#11437 07/31/2003 5:26 PM | Joined: Mar 2002 Posts: 9,115 'Bolter | | 'Bolter Joined: Mar 2002 Posts: 9,115 | Thanks for the replies and yes I am having a lot of fun doing this. I am amazed at the sheer rugged strength of these old axles. I used up four deep nuts as drifts, mushrooming each one but the kingpin did not deform. My last shots were given using an old wristpin. | | |
#11438 07/31/2003 10:39 PM | Joined: Jan 2001 Posts: 198 Member | | Member Joined: Jan 2001 Posts: 198 | I have hear of some people having to cut throught the king pins to remove them in 3 pieces as a last resort when they are really stuck, or using the weight of the car pushing up from the bottom to push them up. | | |
#11439 07/31/2003 11:29 PM | Joined: Mar 2002 Posts: 9,115 'Bolter | | 'Bolter Joined: Mar 2002 Posts: 9,115 | Albert,
I tried using the weight of the truck but that didnt work for me. I guess that I could have put the opposite rear corner on a jackstand to increase the weight but I didn't want to do that. The angle of the kingpin makes the weight method difficult to do because the jack wants to be verticle. | | |
#11440 08/03/2003 3:09 AM | Joined: Feb 2000 Posts: 39 Member | | Member Joined: Feb 2000 Posts: 39 | I'm really not trying to make all of you feel bad with my post. Actually, I'm feeling kinda' guilty about how easy my kingpins were to remove. I had been avoiding replacing them for several years, as I feared the worst. Well, 6 or 8 taps with a large drift and a 3lb sledge had each one out. Yes, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, clunck, as the kingpin fell out the bottom. I took the new standard size kits and spindles to the machine shop and a day or two later picked everything up ready to be reassembled. My only guess is that the previous owners kept them well greased. 
Michael Zaic
Dahlonega, GA
52 GMC 150
48 GMC 300
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#11441 08/03/2003 9:56 PM | Joined: May 2003 Posts: 68 Member | | Member Joined: May 2003 Posts: 68 | we have a machine shop where I work and hardly a week goes by without an industrial axle coming in. They frequently have to be bored-out, built-up, then re-machined back to standard size. Glad to hear that many folks don't have to go to such measures.
Heavy metal worker--up to 4-inch plate.... If you can't cut it, burn it!
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