The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop removing stubborn king pins

Maybe the phrase "If all else fails, get a bigger hammer" works on most occasions but today I spent too many hours trying to remove the two king pins from the axle beam I'm current restoring. The top soft caps came off pretty easy and YES I did remove the wedge bolt thingy that stops the yokes from turning too far. I'm about to hire a auto machine shop to remove them if I can't go much further. Any ideas? I heard that a torch helps but I only have those small butane torchy things, nothing industrial.

BIG HAMMER LOTS OF HEAT

Sounds like your having fun!! I went thru the same problem, and decided to have a heavy duty truck spring and axle shop take care of mine. Well worth it!! I gave them my axle and I also had them install the new king pins and shim them properly and then I re-installed everything. I read here that if the axle is still in the truck you could lift the truck up using a pipe and raise the truck by placing the pipe under the king pin and the weight of the truck would drive it out, but it sounds like you already have the axle out, and so did I at the time.

Heavy duty truck shops who do spring and axle work do these king pin jobs all of the time. When I went in there he already had like 6 or 7 larger versions of what we have on our trucks in process. It kinda made me feel good to see that going on. Good luck and show us some pics if you can!!

TrknGMC,
Loads of fun and then some. Your suggestion of truck shop might be the way for me to do, but I'm going to first sand blast my parts and por-15 them before I have the shop assemble. Yep, my axle is out in my wood shop. It's an extra axle assembly ('53) that I'm putting into my truck so I can have Bendix all around.

If your axle is not mounted in the truck, there is no need to struggle with trying to remove the kingpins. A shop can use a big press and just enough force to move them out.

I removed mine with the assembly still together but no fenders to get in the way! I used a full size sledge hammer, a screw jack under the axle and a wrist pin as a drift. The driver's side was the toughest to remove. The other day I was cleaning up the floor and I discovered that I had left the imprint of the jack base, in the concrete! Now I know why it took so much of my energy.

I have done a couple of sets of king pins recently and I use a 20 ton press from Harbor Frieght. At one point, I had the press maxed out and the acetylene torch warming the area when it decided to "pop" loose. The press and all the hammers and tools laying on it jumped a couple of inches off the ground and I about had to go and change my drawers. Sometimes it is amazing what it takes to get these old king pins out. The other side came out really smooth and easy. Go figure.

I'm going to contact a couple truck shops tomorrow. I have tons of other stuff to do instead of banging my brains out and ruining lots of tools, just to remove these stubborn pins. Once removed everything gets sand blasted, Por-15'd and then reassembled.

Most guys say, gee it is almost worth it to take it out and to a shop. Yours is already out. It will be cheap and do no damage to the parts. I bet you are chewing stuff up a bit this way.

cmayna: It takes lots and lots of heat and patence, and ONE big sledge. Took me 40 min. for 1st one after I learned it took 10min for 2nd. I am pretty good size myself. By all means if you dont have good torch take it to shop, that's got to be the easiest. popcorn The Truth is Out There (good luck keep us posted)

Tomorrow I'll be calling around for a good shop. Meanwhile I ground off the peening from both steering arm balls so the shop can remove them as well.

Hey guys
I am about to do the same for a chevy '51. Do anyone of you have a picture of the arrengement (Jack and wrist or the like) to hammer those pins out?. Sometimes I am as stouborn as those pins. I will give a try.

Took my axle and steering arms to a local diesel mechanic who snickered when he saw what I had saying "gees, the kingpins I replace are heavier than your entire axle." All I could do is smile and ask when he could get to it. "Done by tomorrow".......

We have a local truck shop that does frame, axle & spring work. They also do a lot of classic pickups. I took my 52 3/4 ton in, had new kingpins installed and front end aligned. And my back didn't hurt when I was through!

Cmayna: That is about the same response I got from the spring/truck guy in my town!! Funny isn't? I paid $150 total, and that was to remove old king pins from axle, ream/machine axle to fit oversize king pins, and to repair both spindles, both sides had worn down and then he put the whole unit back together with new grease fittings and greased it for me. Let us know what this guy charges you, just for reference.

Sounds like alot of FUN!!!

mine was easy - beat on it for an hour with a pin setup and a 16 lb sledge - nothing. Then remove axle take to shop - 60,0000 press - nothing. Then heat whole schmear with a torch until cherry red - finally the pins came out. Turns out when they reamed the pins last time, the rotated one of the bushings - no grease nowhere. :mad: Oh well, fixed now.

I got the first one out in 4 hours and the second one in 4 days. I'll never do it again. I'm going to the shop next time. LOTS of heat and pound away.

Picked up my front axle tonight and steering arms tonight. He charged me $50 to remove both king pins, brash bushings & the balls from both steering arms. I told him that I was going to have my axle & yokes sand blasted, then I would Por-15 them. Afterwards I'll bring the set back to him so he can install the new bushings and pins. He looked at my truck and just smiled "If only modern trucks were this simple".

This ole geezer lives where he works, has a cat that to him is the queen. Since I love cats, I easily bonded with him and there we went.....

Craig, what are you going to do with the axle you're replacing? I know you're busy...email me when you can.