Ok, I'm putting my truck back together. I drove the bushings into the spindles. I then "tried" to drive the spindle bolt in. After working up a sweat I decided to read the manual and read that I have to ream the bushings before driving the spindle bolt in. I pressed the spindle bolt back out and checked the bushing id and the bolt od and found about .024 of a difference. I would rather not take everything to a machine shop and have the bushing reamed or find, purchase, and wait for a reamer to arrive so does anyone have any other alternatives?

 

Bushings should be pressed in then reamed or honed to size. It takes the correct tools and know how to do this. Take them to a machine shop, it should be a minimal cost.

 

It's important they be reamed to the correct fit so the truck steers properly, there is no quick and dirty way to do it, not a place to try to cut corners. The bushings are in the spindles, so you only need to take the spindles and kingpins to the machine shop, not the whole axle, there are no bushings in the axle.

PS: did you align the lube holes in the bushings?

 

You guys are probably right, I'll head into town and drop everything off at the machine shop. I have been using an old wheel cylinder hone, which is very slow going but working.

Does anyone have any idea on what the bushing should be honed out to? My new spindle bolt is .922. I've been thinking about make the bushings .920; right now they're .898.

 

Man, I hope you haven't buggered up the new bushings! If you have tapered them or they aren't aligned (the correct reaming, not honing, is done with a long enough reamer to do both bushing at the same time which aligns the two bores) they will wear out again in short order, and you'll be right back where you started. If the machine shop is any good, they should have the correct diameter reamer available. The bore smaller than the kingpin certainly isn't right.

 

Stop!!! The hone used has to simultaneously do both bushings at once, so they are in line. An abrasive stone is not going to do a good job, either. You may have already removed too much, take it to a shop that knows what needs to be done, and has the right equipment to do both bushings at once.

 

Edit: Never mind, I see this is an F-350, .920 is correct for the kingpin

 

If you hammered the bushings in, you have likely damaged them beyond use already, they should be pressed in.

 

Ok, I stopped awhile ago. I had only put the bushings in one of the spindles. Yes, I did align the lube hole. When I did hammer the one set of bushing in I used a bushing installation tool and they went in pretty smooth. But I stopped when AXracer said I need to have it done right. I have to drive 33 miles to the closes machine shop, its a NAPA shop where my engine and rear brake drum are at; they did the work on my 64 Ranchero engine and they did great work. Hey, Thanks guys for the advise. I promise I'll post pictures soon!

 

Just for those reading along: The spindle bosses were not made with high precision, so many are out of round and not perfectly aligned with each other.
To compensate and give the kingpins a precision bearing surface to turn in, Ford used pressed in undersized bushings that were align reamed after installation. Usually the bushing bores are reamed .002 - .003" over the pin diameter for a slip fit and give room for grease layer between the two. If you mic new kingpins you will find them to be machined '002-'003" under a standard inch size reamer diameter, so special sized reamers are not required.
These were work trucks that were meant to be driven over rough (or non-existent) roads of the day so the kingpins took a heavy beating and maintenance was minimal to none. so by making the bushings replaceable, the life of the truck was extended. By putting the bushing in the spindle bosses and locking the kingpins into the axle it made replacing the bushings much easier, the axle can remain in the vehicle and if the bosses became excessively worn, a spindle was much less expensive than the axle to replace.

 

Thanks, that was interesting bit of knowledge. I took my spindles into the NAPA Machine Shop and they don't think I did any damage to my bushings and said the same thing, it will be a slip fit for the king pin.

Thanks every one for the great advice and I'm VERY glad I stopped when I did.

 

Make sure when you get them back you clean them well. I had a buddy that put some in his pants pockets to bring them home. He got home and they wouldn't fit, so he called me, because he thought they weren't properly fitted. Come to find out just the trash (lint/dust) in his pockets was enough to keep them from sliding into place. A good cleaning and a very light coat of oil and they dropped right in! Newer Fords (after ours) used nylon bushings and didn't require machining.