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Gents, I'm installing a new king pin kit and went to torque my lock pin to 55-ft lbs, but realized that the lock pin is simply pulling through with each turn of the wrench. I'm guessing I wasn’t supposed to tap the lock pin flush to the axle to begin with or do I need to keep wrenching further?
looks like not many threads left to torque... is this supposed to happen...?
Then I'm doing it wrong or have the wrong torque spec because I just had the same thing happen on the passenger side even though this time I only tapped the pin in just far enough to start the nut. Yet it's still pulling through with no signs of approaching even 25-30lbs of torque...
EDIT: Plus, I measured my old lock pins compared to the new ones in the kit and they both calipered to the exact same dimensions. Here's the torque spec I'm using for a 72 F100 2WD:
Last edited by Terry Veiga; Oct 6, 2018 at 10:09 PM.
Reason: more info
I've done many and they will stop once bottomed out. I tap them in with a punch and then torque the nut so as not to overstress the threads by drawing it in with only the nut. 55 sounds a little high on the torque though.
So, I decided to install a new lock pin from a second king pit kit that I had to buy as a "back up" the other day just to get 2 new grease seals that absolutely NOBODY sells separately—paying Napa $75 (on sale) just to get two 50¢ seals hurt real bad!
However, this time I only torqued the link pin to 25-30lbs until it was flush to the axle and used heavy strength thread locker. At any rate, it still didn’t feel like the nut bottomed out nor did it seem like I could apply much more torque than 25-30lbs without it continuing to pull through. I'm not sure why my set up won't torque anywhere near the factory spec of 45-55, but I'll install a lock nut as insurance. Thanks!
I'd be very careful here, be sure to tap it in until it stops, THEN torque the nut. I'd definitely recheck it after driving it for 100 miles or so. You don't want it wobbling in the axle beam and ruining it.
Went and checked mine, it sticks out about 1/8" past the beam in the hole. This is with DJM dream beams though, almost 15,000 miles on since the build.
Thanks a lot for checking, hivoltg. I browsed the web looking for spindle pics and noticed the pin depth varied somewhat, but most were similar to yours and even one was pretty deep inside the bore like my first attempt. No matter how far I tap my pins at the start, mine just won't hold torque beyond 25-30lbs then it just pulls all the way through if I keep ratcheting. However, when I went to change the lock pins out to try a second set, I was pleased to find that I still had to keep whacking the drift really hard to back the pin out—so it must be holding tight even at less than factory spec. If I lose any sleep the next couple days, I may clean up my original OEM pins and give those a go, they actually have no distortion like the two new sets I've been experimenting with—they seem to dent and crush just by looking at them.
Last edited by Terry Veiga; Oct 8, 2018 at 09:09 AM.
Reason: Clarification
I need to clarify what I meant by "pulls all the way through;" the pin doesn’t actually come out of the other side, but rather the nut eventually bottoms out against the last thread at which point the pin is well inside the bore with no sign of tightening beyond 25-30 lbs.
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