LOOSE-KING-PINS

[homeonprunehill]

12-09-07
BRUCE R.  You seemed as tho. like myself you attended and graduated from the school of HK!
Also, I feel that you have been employed at a "shade-tree" garage, Right?
Now the question, how do you make a temporary repair to a "king-pin" equiped car that has worn king pin hole ,(for example, if you grap the tire at the bottom and top and check for looseness and there is looseness ) later determinded to be worn"king-pins"and/or king-pin holes, just what do you do to tighten the king-pin untill you can find a reliable machine-shop to make a bushing and install it?
GoodLuck,JIM

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

Geez Jim, you throw a difficult one.

As far as I know, there isn't much you can do without replacing the parts as a kit, as what ever you are going to do to try and take up the slop, you are going to have to remove the pin to do anything about trying to stick some shim material in the bushes to take up the slack.

If the pin isn't worn out, which is going to be highly unlikely that it will be in good condition, you can simply press in a couple of "not worn as bad" bushes, and hoper for the best when you replace the pin.

But, going to all that effort, you may as well do the job properly, as it will take just about as long, and you will only have to do the Wheel Alignment once.

Sorry I can't be more specific, but without actually seeing where the wear is, and if you can jamb some pieces of shim in the "gaps", it is hard to say what is best.

Bruce.

[35-709]

You shouldn't need to find a reliable machine shop to make new bushings for your king-pin suspension.  Rebuild kits are available from several sources such as Kanter.  And Bruce is right, by the time you spend the time and effort in what will most likely be an unsuccessful attempt to "band-aid" the problem, you might just as well do a proper rebuild and have it done with.     

[harvey b]

hello all,i had a similar problem on my 37 caddy 60 series,the steering knuckle was worn,the pin and the push in bushings were OK.i was readying the car for my daughters wedding in a couple of weeks,thought it was going to be a peice of cake,just push out the old bushings push in the new ones,ream them to fit the new pin,and away we go .the hole on the knuckle was worn a bit on one side,couldnt run to the wreckers for a new one?,so we made a shim to slide in the knuckle and take up the slack,dont laugh but we used a peice of a empty paint can,it was about the right thicknes,tricky to get in tight but it worked great,we tightned up the lock bolt extra tight,it got me out of a bind,car actually drives pretty good,am looking for a replacement knuckle this winter,found a NOS one on ebay,but was for wrong side.this remedy might work for you.  thanks Harvey Bowness

[homeonprunehill]

You shouldn't need to find a reliable machine shop to make new bushings for your king-pin suspension.  Rebuild kits are available from several sources such as Kanter.  And Bruce is right, by the time you spend the time and effort in what will most likely be an unsuccessful attempt to "band-aid" the problem, you might just as well do a proper rebuild and have it done with.     

12-11-07
Geoff, I didn't tell the full story in my origional post, but, I think I should come clean and tell all. I had just installed a new king-pin kit and still had "play" in the RF wheel which was not the bearing. turns-out it was like the problem that Harvey B had,(Later post) It was the steering "knuckle" that had the "play" due to the king-pin hole being worn "EGG-SHAPED". With the king-pin in the knuckle, I took a center-punch and expanded the metal around the king-pin, best I remember I expanded the metal on the inside-top and outside bottom of the steering knuckle up by the king-pin hole. I had a "Ready-MIX" truck coming,and I had to get the wheel back-on before the "ready-mix" truck arried. Good Luck,JIM

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

Ah ha, the plot thickens, or loosens, whichever the case may be.

But, a Machine Shop can enlarge the hole and sleeve it back to where it should be, and then you can do some more concreting.

Bruce.