The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk no mo' shimmy-shimmy-shake!

Ol' green had a wicked shimmy that began at about 55mph. I jacked it up and wiggled and tugged at every part of the front end and determined that it was time to replace the kingpins. Got my pins and bushings from Chev's of the 40's and went to work on it last Sat. The passenger side was easy, just a few whacks and it fell out, but the driver's side was a whole different story. I finally took it to a machine shop and had it pressed out. Got it all back together today and took 'er out for a test drive. Wow! What a difference. Smooth as silk.

So just a word of encouragement here: it's not as bad a job as it sounds. Worse case, just take the axle to a machine shop and for a few $$ they'll remove those stubborn critters for you. The results are definitely worth the trouble.

Glad it worked out well. Thanks for the tip.

thats good, that may be coming up on my do to list with my 49

In olden times, people heated with a torch which was supposed to help. A blunt rod, just smaller than the old kingpin being driven by a VLH (very large hammer) never fails to do the job.
meansam

These are modern times, we’re supposed to know better, NO HEAT ON THE AXLE!!
Use one of the bigger control arm bushing removers or one of the many cold methods described here on the forum. Such as letting the weight of the vehicle do the work. Or as Waldo did, take it out and to a machine shop. Remember, when you strike a close fitting steel pin with a sharp blow they tend to mushroom out and fill the hole like a rivet does, pressing is a much better solution. Some might say that the kin pin is hardened steel through and through, but it’s just a case and the steel a few thousands of an inch below the case is relatively soft.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

I read every post and tech tip on this site before and during the adventure of replacing the king pins in my 50 3/4 ton. One person on here stressed using the weight of the truck to push the pin up. I tried that. I tried it all except heat. Then I asked an old retired Chevy mechanic. He warned against beating on the top of the pins to drive them down - they will swell, he said. He told me to strike the side of the eye of the axle with a heavy hammer, not a BFH but a good ball peen/ shop hammer. He said to switch sides of the axle eye. He said it might take awhile and about the time I am ready give up it should start to move. And I did that and it worked. After a few minutes the pin actually started to climb up out of the axle. Only after it started moving did I put a jack under the pin. It took about 15 minutes of hard whacking per side but they came out.

P-B Buster for a couple of days

i used a ball joint press and an old socket to press the pins out, it was soaked with penetrant for a few days, but it was still a b@#$% and a half to get out. i had to put a 4' pipe on my rachet to turn the press screw shaft. then i found that the parts i bought didnt match up(see new thread)