I have been working on the suspension for my 1951 F1-taking everything apart and sandblasting and painting. I replaced the Kingpin bushings, and came up with a way to ream them myself.

I did not want to spend the money to buy the proper reamer, and I was too lazy to drive to a machine shop, so I did it myself.

I took an adjustable reamer, 25/32" to 27/32", honed the cutters on a whetstone, and just kissed one of the bushings in each spindle, enough to make them both the same size and round. Too lazy to run to the hardware store, I ordered 2 Oilite bushings from McMaster Carr, each at 1/2" bore x 1" OD x 1" long. I reamed the bore to .5125", just enough for a press fit onto the shaft of the adjustable reamer.

I pressed on 1 bushing, then turned it on the lathe to .810", which was a slip fit into the bushing that I previously reamed, creating a pilot bearing. I inserted the adjustable reamer through the reamed bushing until the pilot bearing was into the reamed bushing and reamed the remaining bushing to size. I had to adjust the reamer 4 times because I was taking very light cuts with each adjustment. Once the bushing was reamed, I turned the reamer through the bushing-once the cutters cleared, the pilot bearing dropped right through. I repeated this operation on the other spindle.

I then pressed on the unturned bushing and turned it to .814", which is the size of the Kingpin. I used the bushing that I previously took to final size as a guide with the .814" pilot bearing and reamed the remaining spindle bushing to size. Flipping the reamer from one bushing to the other, using the pilot bearing in each bushing, I cleaned up the bores so that the Kingpins would slip right in.

Worked beautifully for a perfect fit!



Adjustable Reamer with Small and Large Pilot Bearings





Using the Pilot Bearing





Final Sizing

 

Beautiful. At first it was clear as mud but the pic's really clear it up. Good work.

 

Nice work! The supply of NOS Ford reamers is about dried up.

 

I too am a woodworker. But I don't have an adjustable reamer or a lathe. Well, an old wood lathe. I live a 25 mile round trip from town, but there isn't a machine shop on the island, so it's a whole day and lots of $ just to get there on the ferry. To ream my bushings I slotted a 3/4" dowel and inserted two flaps of sanding belt bent into an 'L'. Started with 80 grit and went to 120 when I got close. Spin, try. spin, try. My panel truck holds the road like new. Just another method for those of us that like doing things ourselves.

 

GB does the material come off fairly quick. I like the ideas put out here to keep the the bushings reamed at the same angle (the original line bore)

 

I took mine to a local spring shop, I said "Don't worry, i'm in no hurry for them".. 5 months later I finally get it back to the tune of $180.. And I supplied the new kit from speedway! Lesson learned....

 

With a couple fresh strips of 80 grit it takes about 1 or 2 minutes of honing to get real close, then I switch to 120 grit just because, and dial it in. Two weeks later I did a set for my buddy's '51 chev 2 ton dump truck. On all 4 pins I've done, the process was very controllable and was pretty easy to stop when the cleaned and oiled kingpins slid down into the bores slowly and on their own with just gravity. I had some for my '38 tonner done 20 years ago at a small auto shop with the adjustable reamer and they were still in great shape when I sold it ten years later. We use what we have, that's all.