The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk King Pin Bushings

I have searched and found a lot of info on the King Pin bushings. I have the old kingpins and bushings out. And the pins fit great in the axle, (test fit) Where I am having a problem is the bushings seem to be too tight in the spindle. I managed to press 1 bushing in but it was so tight that the KingPin is not going to fit. (shows signs of damage to bushing when test fit.) This is for a 1953 3600 3/4 ton and the Kingpin set was ordered for that specific truck. Am I doing something wrong?
Do I need to take the spindles to a machine shop and let them install them?
What do the rest of you guys do?


Thanks,
Tim in Richmond, Kentucky

Tim,

Wait to hear from someone who has worked a 3/4 or 1-ton king pin repair. Do you have a Shop Manual?

The 3/4 ton bushing is a press fit (I think that a press is supposed to be used - not a hammer). The 3/4 bushing has to be reamed for the pin to fit.

Tim

That's what I thought had to be done. But somewhere I saw a post that said the 3/4 set was already sized to fit.

Well I may have ruined 1 bushing, I will talk to a machine shop and see what they say. First lesson learned in a long line of lessons on this old truck.

Everything else has been going smooth so far....

Watch for more posts, I am sure I will need help!

This forum is great!

Thanks,
Tim

I've just replaced my kingpins on my 52' 3600, and the bushings were a tight fit into the spindles (i used a press). BUT i did have to take them to a friend of mine at his machine shop to have them in-line reamed. The king pins are a little snug now but still move freely and will settle in just nice. He charged me $40 but it was well worth doing.
Regards
Tim

p.s PLENTY OF GREASE !!!!!!!!!!!!!

I checked at a machine shop today and the guy told me to bring the spindles in along with the kingpin kit. If he had the correct reamer he would be glad to help me. I am going to take them in a day or two.

I will keep everyone posted about what happens.

I would be glad to pay $40 to have these things fit correctly!

Tim

TRK,

A reamer is the sure ticket to a on-size hole but there is more to the story on spindle bushings. They need to be a nice palm press fit to the pin and most of this magic comes from having them in absolutely perfect alignment with each other.

As someone stated above, a Sunnen hone is perfect for this. If they are more than .010 under..or so, they should be reamed, but with a piloted reamer. This indexes off one hole as it reams the other hole (bushing) and keeps the holes perpendicular to each other.

This isn't something a typical machine shop would have. A automotive machine shop might have one if they have been around for awhile.

If your machinist is going to machine ream them in a setup that has aligned them through the bore then all will be fine but to hand ream each one separately is a different story.

Having the holes on size is part of the recipe, but having them true to each other is the other part.

Stuart

Spindles and King Pin kit are at the machine shop!
He looked around and pulled out a reamer?, that was about 16 inches long. He had several of different sizes. Finally he found one that would fit all the way thru the spindles. My eyes lit up when he said "Yep, I think I can do it!" "Come back in a day or two and they will be ready" Dang those Kingpins!

I know virtually nothing about kingpins, but how do they get jammed in there so tight? Is it because they aren't greased, or are they pressed in on purpose?

I'm a little confused reading this post. I read the Stovebolt PDF tech article on kingpin removal and found this statement.

"1/2- and 3/4-ton trucks use bronze “floating” kingpin
bushings that do not require reaming. These bushing are
manufactured to final size."

Am I correct in understanding that this is true only when using exact replacement and not oversized kingpins? Or do the bushings need to be reemed all the time?

Oh, the tech article is great and doesn't leave anything to the imagination.

Kyle

I thought the same thing when I read the tech article. Order the Kingpin Kit, remove the old kingpins and bushings. Insert new bushings, reinstall new Kingpins. Done

That was not the case with my 1953 3600 3/4 ton. Ordered the regular 3/4 ton kit for a 1953 chevrolet. Kingpins fit perfect in the axle. But Once the bushings were installed in the spindle, there was no way the Kingpins were going to fit.

Machine shop Guy said the only Kingpin bushings he had seen that did not need reaming were plastic replacment bushings that were used in the field.

I will keep you posted on my situation.

If someone has changed there kingpins and bushings without reaming. Please chime in.

Tim

Kyle,

Replacement floating bushings (I've only seen metal bushings) do not have to be reamed - standard and over-sized.
3/4 ton trucks had different style bushings, depending on the year.

1942-1947 (and, most likely for several earlier years).

1948-1951 (through at least 1955-1st series trucks).

The The king pin Tech Tip is for 42-46 trucks..

Tim

tclederman,

Then it would be safe to say that "floating" bushings are not offered new anymore and one would have to find a NOS part? Mine is a '46 3/4ton and it sure would be nice if I could do this all on the truck without taking it off to a shop.

I was thinking the tech tip was written from the experience of the authors own removal not from the service manual. It makes more sense now why they have to be reamed.

Kyle

Just got my Spindles back from the machine shop. Reamed and fit great. $40 total and well worth it. Anyone dealing with this situation there are 2 things that I would have done differently.
After removing the old kingpins and spindles I would take them to a machine shop to have the bushings pressed in, and to have the bushings reamed to the proper fit of the new kingpins.

I can only speak of my situation, but doing a search on this board led me to believe the new kingpin kits were sized to fit the 3/4 ton truck I have.

Maybe this post will help someone else in this situation.

Looks like Denny has posted the reason for my trouble. But we are all learning here. And I at 52 years old am still learning everyday. Thanks for all of the input.

I can tell you a trick to removing the old bushings.
Put the spindles in a vice. find the split in the bushing and take a hacksaw and cut about a quater of an inch next to the split. Cafeful not to damage the spindle. Once thru the bushing, the sliver of the bushing can be punch out making the bushing very easy to drive out of the spindle.

Tim

I tried the socket and also tried the punch on the edge of the bushing. These things would not budge for me. They were really stuck in the spindles. I was using only a bench vice, maybe if I had a small press I could have gotten them out with the socket trick. After fighting so much with the first one, it was time to hand it over to the professional! Just glad they are done!

Tim

I agree with Denny's last post: if you cannot get it out using as described in the Shop Manual (the "NOTE" technique is very clever), and you intend to have any of the work done by a shop (that knows what they are doing), you might as well take the axle assembly to the shop and let them disassemble the parts. With proper equipment, and the axle assembly off the truck, the time involved in disassembly by a good shop is very short.

Pure lack of regular greasing !!!!!!!!!! Period !

On my 50 Plymouth I just did king pins and bushings, but did not have the right size ream. took them down and had the machine shop hone them and they came out better than any ream job I have seen, more precise and much better fit. I think the ol' buckett of reams I have will go on the bay and I am going to use the hone method from now on.