The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Driveline Wandering all over the road ... now what?

.006 gap can be addressed with Loctite 660 which will fill that gap and prevent the bushing from moving in the spindle bore and continue to ruin your spindles.
I use this product for all the kingpin jobs that I work on whether there is slop in the spindle bore or not as a preventative measure.
Get the bushings and spindles squeaky clean. I use acetone.
Make sure to have the kingpin in place while the Loctite cures to maintain alignment. You do this on the bench with out the axle in the picture. Don't get sloppy with this product to avoid getting any of it on the kingpin.
Carl

Thank you Carl. That is a relief knowing I don’t have to locate and buy new spindles.
Now does any of you fellow “bolters” know where I can get new dust covers? The ones I have now, have a 1/4” hole in them and distorted from me prying them out. They measure 1-1/8”.

Those caps/covers/discs usually come in the parts set.

What brand and part number king pin set did you buy?

The existing king pins were recently replaced by a previous owner and showed no wear, so I wanted to reuse them using Loctite 660 to secure the outer bushings to the worn spindle. The worst of the wear is only .006” so Loctite should solve the problem.

However, I still need the dust covers.

I’ll buy a new king pin set if that is the only way to get the covers, but I was hopping to save a few dollars and buy only the covers.

I don't know if you have a welder and a ball peen hammer, but those plugs are nice and soft and easy to work back into usable shape.

I performed a close up inspection of the spindles and where the inner bearing rides is worn. It was not evident when the axle was on the truck because the wear is only on the bottom. From the top it looks perfect. A measurement confirmed the wear to be a couple of thousands but worn none the less. It looks like I need replacement spindles. I’ll be posting for replacements on the parts wanted section.

I’m just looking for options. Are there any methods for restoring a spindle where a bearing rides, such as knurling or sleeving?

That area of the spindle is only made to support the inner race so I don't know how it would have wear, only on the bottom. The race should be just a snug fit, not a press fit.

If you go online and look at catalogs by people that make the convex frost plugs, you should be able to find the correct size for your plugs.

When new or good condition used parts are available, patching on old ones isn't a very good idea. So far as the end caps are concerned, they're just flat disc type "freeze" plugs. Cut out some discs that are a few thousandths larger than the counterbore in the spindle from 16 gauge sheet metal, place the flat disc over a socket wrench, and use a big ball peen hammer as a forming die and a vise to put some "crown" in the disc. Once it's crowned enough to be a snug fit in the hole, insert it and tap it a few times with a hammer to seat it into place.

The inner spindle shoulder wear of .002" is insignificant- - - -that's about the diameter of one strand of hair, and once the bearings are preloaded properly it won't be a factor. If it really causes you to lose sleep, super-glue a piece of .0015" stainless steel shim stock to the lower 1/3 of the shoulder to take up the slack. You could use Loctite on the wear point, but it will make it difficult to remove the hub the next time you need to pack the bearings.
Jerry

I’m surprised at what I found also. I’m posting a picture to show the wear. The view is from the side. After viewing HRL’s post, if I can't find replacements at a reasonable cost, I most likely assemble it as is.

I do have a possible scenario. If the bearings were not adjusted properly or the bearings were failing, that would cause the top of the wheels to lean in. With the weight bearing on the bottom of the spindle it may have caused the wear. Just a thought!

That type of wear is most likely caused by an inner bearing getting a little rough and causing the race to spin on the spindle instead of remaining stationary and letting the bearing balls or rollers turn over it. In extreme situations where the bearing locks up, I've seen the underside of the spindle worn down 1/8" or more before everything pressure-welds itself together.
Jerry

I finally had some uninterrupted time to work on the truck today so I remounted the loose spring mount. I first secured the mount tight to the frame using 3/8” bolts and bolts. On the first hole, I tried using progressive drills in slow speed,starting a 32nd of an inch larger and working up, but the bits would only dig in and stop the drill. If I ran it at high speed with light pressure it would drill, then start to chatter.

A trick I used as a machinist was to flatten the cutting edge of the bit slightly by either grinding or using a a small stone (so it scrapes rather then cuts). This would stop the bit from digging in, especially in soft materials like brass or copper but would also work on soft steel. Not having any sacrificial bits like I did when I was working and I not wanting to have to resharpen numerous bits, I decided to try to enlarge the holes using the just reamer.

This worked out nicely, fairly easy to drill and left very clean holes. I had previously bought grade 5, 1/2”-20 x 2” shoulder bolts, nuts and lock washers figuring on cutting to fit. Although the reamed holes were to size, the bolts measured undersize by about .002”, so I added some Loctite 660 to fill the gap.

This may spark a conversation on rivets vs bolts. The tensile strength of a single 1/2”x20 grade 5 bolt is 19,200 lbs. and the sheer strength is generally 60% of the tensile strength at 11,560 lbs. There are four of these bolts in two different planes working as both tensile and sheer function. I don’t think it will ever pose a problem. I will however check the torque on these bolts on a regular basis.

I might have missed the answer but what kind of tires do you have? Old bias plys? Radials?

When I ran the bias ply tires, my '48 would "hunt" all over the place, sometimes real abruptly.. When I put on radials, I could finally take a cup of coffee when I drove to work.

Using the reamer is a good idea. I like to try for a slight press fit of a shouldered bolt in a hole, maybe .0005"- .001" or so when I'm replacing rivets. Install the bolt with an air hammer, and just use the nut on the back side to secure it in place once it's bottomed out. Never, ever, let the threaded area of a bolt replace a rivet; the part that passes through the joined pieces MUST have a solid shank. Since the spring perches and other parts riveted to a frame were either hot-riveted or at least installed with a big hydraulic press, any clearance at all in a bolted assembly will only get worse. A properly-installed rivet is as close to a piece of solid metal or a weld as is physically possible. That's why areas of airplanes that carry flight stresses are riveted, not bolted together.
Jerry

I agree that a press fit would be the ideal situation for this mount. As a machinist, I also know that the last drill bit size before reaming and even the material has an effect on the size of the finished hole. Without doing some test pieces thru the forged steel mount and the rolled steel frame, its a crap shoot as too what the finished size hole would end up being. I should have bought a few undersized reamers, but the budget would not allow.

I think a better approach would have been to buy a .010” undersize reamer and sized the bolts using my lathe to fit. Hindsight is 20-20.

Unfortunately it didn’t turn out as tight as I would have liked. I did size the bolt so the shouldered part of the bolt goes thru both the mount and the frame and the increased size of the bolt (1/2”-20 grade 5) should help keep the mount from moving. Only time will tell.

Thanks all for your input and help. It is greatly appreciated!

Now on to the springs!

For Wally/ Montana, I do have radial tires. I’m hopping that after I fix my worn springs, loose spring mount, king pins and drag link I will also enjoy that cup of coffee!

Thanks!

As long as you don't use your truck as originally designed (driving it off road and treating it like a rented mule), you should be just fine with what you did with the bolts.

I finally got my front end back together and no more “Wandering Truck”! What a long road it’s been. It started with air pressure and adjusting the steering box then progressed into replacing the drag link ends, king pins, main leafs in both front leaf springs, shackle pins, refastening the spring mount on the drivers side, replacing both sets of brake shoes due to leaking grease seals, replacing the wheel bearings, replacing the wheel cylinders, then the master cylinder and finally the brake line going to the drivers side due to a double flare that the previous mechanic did not do it properly. I complicated things a bit when I inadvertently left the ignition on burning up the points while troubleshooting the fuel gauge and sending unit.

After more than two months I took her out for a short spin. When I fired her up, the hydraulic valves were clacking like crazy but started to quiet down after a few minutes of driving.

During the rebuild, I took the opportunity to clean everything and give it a coat of satin black paint, so now it also looks good. I also added leaf spring liners and upgraded the wheel bearing to tapered roller bearings. I want to thank everybody that offered advice as I couldn’t have done it without the expertise of those on this forum.

A special thanks goes out to Hotrod Lincoln, 52Carl and tclederman as they went above and beyond! Thanks again!

Congratulations!
You are a good listener. It can be a challenge to relay information through outer space via the Wild Wild World of Web, and even more of a challenge to process all of the various opinions provided for you to make any sense of it all.
You will now be able to do your next truck with your eyes closed.

I still got the clutch, transmission, torque tube and the rear axle to go thru. And that’s just the mechanical. I think I’ll be thanking you guys for a few more years. LOL!

Someone here or other similar place was having good luck with normal rivets, which apparently are available somewhere, heating with a torch and then inserting and setting them with a normal rivet gun and bucking bar. Obviously two guys would be helpful.

Ed

That would have been me. Although others have used hot rivets as well. There were three of us. One with the bucking bar, one with the torch, and a third with the air hammer.
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