The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Do I need to buy a reamer?

I got all my parts ordered the other day,now to get to work,to do my king pins on the 1 ton do I need a reamer to finsh them or can I hone them to fit.I'v heard honed bushings last longer and they are tighter,I'v done it with my steering box bushings for my jeep and it worked great.Shouldn't have any trouble doing it this way on the king pins should I?

48 one ton,

When a shop reams the bushings, they used a piloted reamer that aligns the reamer with the thru-bore of both bushings. This gets holes that are sized properly AND are in alignment with each other.

Most hones I have used are a very fine grit. The brass/bronze would tend to plug them up quickly and make the job take quite awhile. When you were finished, you would have no guarantee that both bushings were aligned to each other.

Having said all that, I will say....go for it! Give the hone a try. Buying the proper reamer would probably set you back a small fortune.

The other option is to take the spindles to a automotive machine shop and let them hone them on a Sunnen or similar type machine.

Stuart

I don't know if your trucks king pin bushings requires reaming or if their floating bushings. However, if they do, like my 50 3/4 ton, I recommend doing it. Either youself or by someone else. Personaly I used a brake hone which didn't allow alignment between the two bushing as Stuart was explaining. One side worked fairly good and I am satisified with the results. The other side I honed each bushing untill perfect fit but they where slightly out of alignment, preventing the pin from going through. To make it work I had to bore out the holes bigger. It did work but the bushing are oversized now and nolonger a "perfect fit". Since my truck is years from roadworthy I dicided to live with it for now, but I don't expect that one to last as long.

good luck,
Dana

I took mine for the 53 3/4 ton to a mauto machine shop. $50 and 20 minute later they were a perfect fit.
I don't like to take chances with my steering.
Rich

Pardon me .... an Automotive machine shop

A good automotive machine shop has a machine that will hone the bushings to size and in line, (not a brake cylinder hone).
This is often considered to be a better option than reaming.

Honing it yourself, although possible, is not a good idea if you want the most possible life out of the bushings, as alignment between bushings is the problem.

Best to have an automotive machine shop do the work, either hone or ream.

Grigg

If you are going to hone them yourself this is what I would recomend. If your hone is long enough then insert it throught the top and hone the bottom while trying to keep the hone centered in the top hole. Then repeat the process for the top while aligning the hone through the bottome hole. If your hone isn't long enough then I would look into an extention. There is no guaruntee that they will be truely aligned but you will have a better chance that they will be. Good luck.

Well, from all the replys I think i'll look around and see if I can find anyone that can do it.And leave honing for a last option.It looks like its a good project to do, so might as well do it right the first time and not waste my time messing it up and having to go back and fix it.

If you use a brake hone in that soft bushing material, you will probably get grit embedded in it, might make them wear prematurely. Reaming is the way to go.