The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Any advice on King Pin replacment

Hello again,
The King Pins need to be replaced on my 65 P30 . Any advice on what is the best way to go about this ?
I've only replaced the King Pins in 2 vehicles , and both were many , many years ago . However , the memory of how difficult a job it was has stayed with me . Not having the correct tools at the time may have been most of the reason the job was so tough .
Is there a tool made for removing and installing King Pins ? Is there a chance of renting such a tool if there is one ?

Thanks for any input on the subject .

The best tool is a large hydraulic press. For much less than the cost of a press, a shop will change them for you. Other than that we get into hammering with a lot of force and that doesn't always turn out too great.

There is a hydraulic porto-power type tool with adapters to push king pins out, and it's much easier, and safer than the hammer and torch routine. I've used various types of jury-rigged adapters involving water pipe, steel plates, and chains with a regular body shop type porto-power to change king pins, but I'm not proud of the fact. The results were successful, but it was not safe or prudent to do it that way.
Jerry

If it will fit, I used an OTC Balljoint press. I messed it up a little, but it's ok. Absolutely heavily grease the threads. You will make a mess! I had a breaker bar on it and used the handle out of my floor jack. MAN! Those kindpins were in TIGHT! (from the rust/years.) Either the press was going to break or the kingpins would come out. The latter happened.

A new OTC balljoint press costs around $129. I recommend it highly. The replacement kingpins wobbled in the axle a very little bit. I made the decision to go with standard pins.

I guess I got lucky. I didn't need a press. The hardest part for me was removing the end caps. I had to use a chisel & hammer to dig a groove and then pry out. I tried doing it with the axle on truck, but gave up & pulled the axle. I needed new Ubolts anyway. With the axle in a vice, a few hits with hammer & punch and the pins popped out. Then I used a socket to tap out the bushings. Install only required minimal tapping except for the caps needing hammering in with a socket. This is my first kingpin replacement done today (Saturday).

The lock bolts can be tough to get out. That is the first hurdle of the job.

Thanks for all of the replies...
" The hardest part for me was removing the end caps."
This has me a little confused , which isn't hard to do these days . What "end caps" ? Is this the caps on the top and bottom of the spindle ?
I started the removal on the driver side and was able to remove the retaining pin without much hassle , but the King Pin wasn't moving . No big surprise there . I've been spraying them with Blaster for a couple of weeks now . (sorry Jerry , haven't found the Kroil yet)
The thought of how much trouble it was to remove the pins from a 65 Ford van when it was only 13 years old had me thinking twice about doing this job . If by some chance these are the original pins in this truck...they might never come out .

Any idea of what amount of force would be needed to bust those pins free ? Any thoughts on whether or not an 8 ton bottle jack has enough umph ? I do have a couple of 1 inch steal plates that have holes big enough for the pin to pass through . Maybe I can make a small press using the plates and angle iron. Hmmm...

Well , once again I thank all for the help . Never would have thought of making a small press .

I had real fun getting the lockbolts out. I used the OTC balljoint press to press the lockbolts out. It you hammer on them, you'll make it near impossible to get out because you'll damage the bolts.

The kingpin is sealed both ends by a welchplug. I reinstalled mine and sealed all 4 welchplugs with epoxy putty to keep the water out.

Ah...
This axle has covers that are held in-place with a couple of small bolts .
I guess it would be hard to remove those plugs .

Are the pins pressed in originally ?

It is common for king pins to fail to move with a 20 Ton press. I don't understand where the covers are that you mentioned.

The king pin should not be a loose fit in the axle. They should take some mild force to push in.

Ok i guess that i was a little lucky with mine, but i gotta ask a stupid question. . . Have you tried some good Persuasive force yet? Get you a good size hammer with a good brass punch and BTHO them for a lil bit. Takes a lil bit of work but it did the trick with me. Stuff moves with the right amount of persuasion behind it. Another trick you might want to try is something i found in the tech tips here. Use the weight of the truck to your advantage (assuming you still have the axle on the frame and maybe the motor and/or the cab still on the frame). Put your bottle jack under the king pin with like a stud that slightly smaller than the king pin itself. put it under the spindle and jack the truck up from the kingpin. the weight of the truck might push the pin through. just make sure you have something else under the axle to catch the truck if it does start to push through.

The end caps I was talking about are the domed steel caps that seal the ends of the kingpins from dirt & keep the grease in. Since they are recessed, you can't just pry them out.

I took the axle off because I was having trouble swinging a hammer inside the wheelwell. I assume that everyone pulls the brake hub & backing plate off the spindle when removing kingpins. If so, the only thing left attached to the axle is 4 u-bolts holding it to the springs. The axle weighs less than 100lbs & having it on a bench makes working a whole lot easier. Then if you can't get the pins out, take it to a shop & they should only charge $20-$40 to press them out.

The backing plate is designed such that the king pin can't be removed with until the plate is off.

The top and bottom of the spindle has covers over the pins . The covers are held by 1/4 x 1/2 x 16 bolts . Maybe the Grumman 1 ton had a different axle from the GM pickup chassis . The parts were readily available from Autozone . AZ has a good picture of the parts if anyone is that interested . (65 Chev P30)
As for the removal of the pins , this is not going to be an easy job . I tried the instructions in the tip section that said to let the weight of the vehicle push the pins out . Well , all I can say after making myself half deft from pounding on the axle with a shortened 12# sledge , is the guy that wrote that article must be one tough SOB .
The pin didn't budge . So , I've decided that it just might be easier to remove the axle and get it into a real press . I doubt that any little press that I can make would push those pins out .

When its done , I'll be sure to post what had to be done .

You should post some pics of what it all is. maybe someone else will have a better suggestion if they can see what the situation is. but if they havnt budged so far... your best bet is to pull the axle and take it to a shop. If a press cant budge them then they will probably drill the pins out and insert bushings in the axle and put a new king pin in for you. Find a shop that works on big rigs, they do these repairs often on 18-wheelers and will probably do the fix better this way than tryin to press or beat the hell outa them.