The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk kingpin removal - '55 1st series chevy axle ?

Somebody must know a sure-fire way to remove the kingpins from a 55 1st series Chevy axle.

I finally got the locking pins out but now the kingpins will not even begin to move.

I don't really know whether to heat the axle or not and I can't get to the pin to put heat directly where it needs it.

Anybody know how to overcome 52 years of frozen rusted steel? thanks!!!!

slowgoer

slogoer,

It's alright to apply some heat to the axle 'eye'...it's a forging and was born of heat!

Doing this job while the axle is on the truck, and swinging room is at a premium is twice as tough.

Heating the eye, spraying with WD-40 or the equivalent and beating with a very large hammer and piece of bar stock is about it.

The king pins are supposed to be tight in the axle eye..if yours are, count your blessings.

Taking the axle off for serious beating, or a trip to the machine shop isn't that difficult, and can save knuckles and fingers.

The hubs and backing plates will be pulled anyway when you clean and re-bush the spindles and it gives you a chance to inspect other components.

The key on this project is to out think the king pins. If they detect a weak spirit, they will not move. Good luck.

Stuart

Thanks Stuart, I guess I will put the heat to it and get a bigger hammer. You are right about limited space, it is tough to keep from taking chunks out of the fender but I do not want to take it off. mitchell

I think some guys use a bottle jack and the weight of the truck to push the pin out. Never used that method myself though...

Hit it harder,Brian

A bottle jack and a lenth of chain works great. Be careful though the jack will try to turn if the chain is not just right.

A lot of the impact depends on the type of drift that you are using. Mild steel will absorb a lot of the energy intended to move the kingpin. I found something hard like a wrist pin worked well. Also, with all the pounding, it is possible to distort the wrist pin a bit, and driving it through can affect the bore. My advice is to get it started moving and then remove it in the reverse direction. You can tell when it has started to move. Initially your hammer will bounce and when the pin starts to move, the hammer won't bounce the same.

I have always taken the front axle off the truck and pressed-out the kingpins; however, Koolkar has a Tech Tip for kingpin removal that many people say works like a charm.

P-B buster over several days. Me being a welder I made a pusher out of some pipe and 1/4X 1 flat welded on each side of the pipe with nut and bolt welded on the top to screw pressure on the pin. Like a bearing puller excep oposit. The old grease acts like an adheasive when old. P-B will lossen it up over time.I don't like hitting something that hard cuz I always mis the drift and hit my hand and so it makes it more painful to make the tool, so I make the tool first. Need a drawing let me know.

According to the shop manual you NEVER, EVER apply heat to a forged axle. It weakens it. Check out the new Tech Tip on this very subject, link is at the top of the page. Good luck!

Got mine out using a large u-joint seperator I got cheap, and a hammer. Tightened the clamp with a BIG breaker bar, then whacked the screw with the biggest hammer I had.... Four or five repeats and the pin kept sliding with turning the screw. Ruined a cheap tool (still have it, though), but got the job done.

Good luck

That KoolKar tip sounds like it will work so I think I will try that first Thanks !!

Be careful about spraying wd-40 around a torch, it burns you know...

If you can't remove them easily on the truck, remove the axle and take it to a machine shop to have them pressed out. This is the best and least damaging way to do this repair. Unless you're experienced and educated about what heat does chemically to steel, you shouldn't heat it over about 250 F. If you heat it above that, trust me, you damage it and make it unsafe to drive.

This is how I just recently removed mine.
1. Place axle onto jack stands.
2. Remove all the stuff so only the spindle
is left.
3. Use a floor or bottle jack with a heavy chunk of iron, such as a sledge hammer placed on its side on top of the jack and then jack up to the bottom of the king pin [after you take the plugs out], jack until you take the weight off the the jackstand, whether it be the left one or the right one.
4. Place a slug of close to the same diameter on top of the kingpin, I used a 1/2 or 9/16 nut. There will be about 1/4 of an inch of the nut sticking up above the knuckle.
5. Beat on the nut with a 4 or 6lb sledge. I am sure it will start to move for you. the key is to have something real heavy on the bottom. I used a post pounding mallet head that weighs 14lbs.
5. Once you have the kingpin pounded flush to the bottom of the knuckle, you will have to place a short piece of pipe a little larger inside diameter than the kingpin outside diameter, between the bottom of the knuckle and your chunk of iron and jack.
6. On top I used a 3/4 inch bolt, held with vise grips and carried on beating the pin out. It worked for both sides.

Good Luck, Brian

I just replaced my kingpins in my '53 and I used a 1/2" deep impact socket , which was very slightly less in diameter than the kingpins and beat the hell out of it while holding it with a pair of vise-grips, about 3-4 whacks with a 2 1/2 lb sledge and both kingpins came out real nice , this was on a truck that hadn't turned a wheel since '72

I'm with Ron. I had mine pressed out at the machine shop. 20 tons of force was needed on a 40 ton press. Cost: $40 bucks.

I may be wrong here but don't the Kingpins have a TAPPER?? Also make sure that the locking pin has been removed or you could drive it for a month and it won't move. I have removed quite a few kingpins and I can tell you hitting your thumb with a 2.5 pound sledge hurts way more the second time you do it, usually followed by several words that would make a longshoreman blush and a dent in somthing else.

Taper?

No, not in a 1/2 ton 55-1st series Chevrolet truck.

Sometimes it helps to whack the eye end of the axle with a big hammer.

Mine took a 20 ton press. It made funny popping sounds and then let loose.

I always had success taking the axle off the truck. I then put an appropriate sized bolt in the axle bore and smacked it real good using a 22 ounce framing hammer. Of course, I always needed to do other fixes to the front end.

I think our flyboy from Alberta has the right idea, might be difficult to find a suitable puller heavy enough to press the king pin out if it is really stuck bad. When I changed mine they tapped out with a brass punch, they were nice and snug but not at all frozen. In my opinion you should not use anything harder than brass to remove a steel pin of any sort. If you use any steel or hardened steel drift you will most likely start to mushroom the king pin and then it just gets tighter and tighter being similar to what happens when you upset a rivet.
I'm fortunate to have access to a machine shop so I have duplicated most of the Special Tooling pictured on the pages of the Shop Manual for working on the various components of my 1950, 3604. The latest go round are the tools for working on the rear axle, i.e., hub bearing and seal removers and drivers and six point adjusting nut spanner. I also made the properly sized seal, bearing race drivers for the front wheels, and mast jacket bushing remover and driver. Torque tube seals and bushing were another set.
If I had a king pin that were frozen to the point that a brass drift would not budge it, I would machine a puller fashioned after a pitman arm puller that would capture the eye with a large, probably 3/4" thread to press the pin out. If that didn't work I'm sure that some sort of a saddle could be rigged with a 20-ton bottle jack from HF a couple of plates and some threaded rod.
Of course I've been called a bullhead by more than one person close to me and always want to do it myself. Then again, not everyone has a machine shop at their disposal, in that case I'm with Ron, pull the axel and take it to someone with a press.
I concur TC, never any taper.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Just thought I would let you know that the KoolKar tech tip works. Letting the weight of the truck work for you helps alot. Thanks again for all the info! mitchell

Glad to here you got em out! I tried to do mine once on a 59 gmc... ended up taking the axle to a machine shop to have em pressed out after a lot of colorful words. I just pressed the king pins out of a 1941 axle at a machine shop I have access to. It sure beats swinging a hammer!!! The Axle is off to the powder coater now to get blasted and powder coated, before I reinstall the king pins.

Congrats!

I have found that #@#@#@#@# works for me.

Just as an addendum to this thread. I was at a winter swap meet last weekend and noticed a couple of control arm bushing remover/installers that one of the vendors was selling. One of them looked like it would work great for popping out a stubborn king pin. You would have to make an adaptor the size of the pin, but the anvil is super heavy. Bout $70 bucks, might pay for it self if your planning a few restorations or if you have friends that you like to loan your tools to.
Try these pics and see what ya think;
http://rides.webshots.com/photo/2861149360098611668JfIjQY
http://rides.webshots.com/photo/2090331440098611668iTMoyD

Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

As I posted above. I have had good luck with a bottle jack and some chain. Used the chain for the saddle as Denny here describes. My experience with king pins has been on much bigger 18,000 lads axles so this should work for an axle designed for 4,000 lads.

just get a kingpin press or ujoint balljoint remover sometimes they are called. its a big c clamp made for that you can get them fairly cheap like 39 bucks from harbor freight,,, wait.. i got mine on ebay for 39 bucks ya cant go wrong... removes ball joints or ujoints also... the one guy before mentioned it but no one picked up on it...
like this ebay press