I am having some extreme difficulty removing the front kingpin on my '81 RWD f150.

Some back ground: The kingpin has always been missing a cap so I can't grease it. I didn't know there was no cap until the steering seized up a little so I started oiling it with a penetrating oil every couple weeks and it would turn just fine. Now it's been a couple years and I want to at least replace the grease cap so I bought a king pin set. I figured I would replace the entire thing while I was at it cuz it's probably all scored up from running dry all the time, but now I am having second thoughts.

So I removed the lock pin and my haynes manual instructs to remove the king pins driving them up from the bottom. I am working on jackstands and its really close to the floor so I can only give it little baby whacks from underneath there. I also tried hitting down from the top but I didn't want to go too ham on it just because of what the manual said.


Anyways I ended up really wailing on the thing from both sides and then I gave it hell with my oxy acetylene torch and wailed some more. Didn't budge. I mean I'm not talking hot like glowing red but it was smoking up a real plume. Now I don't want to but I'm wondering if I should just leave the half burnt up pin in there it still turns fine I could just put the new caps and jam some grease and call it a day.

Any recommendations? Can I drive it straight down from the top? The options in my head are either keep trying at it or just leave it and put it back together. I really don't want to replace the axles.

 

I don't see any penetrating oil? Maybe it all burned off. I would soak it overnight with PB Blaster or something similiar (Kroil is excellent). I can't tell from the pictures in my book, but will the pin go up as well as down out of the axle? If it will, I would take a jack and a short fat bolt or a couple of nuts, or possibly a small 2 ton jack, anything that will fit up in the hole and press against the bottom of the pin. Then pump the jack up till all the weight of the truck is on the pin. Then wack on the top of the axle and see if it will move. Keep putting the penetrating oil in the keeper hole and any other orifice you can find to get the oil in near the pin.

If you get it to move, put more oil on it and try to keep going or you could try beating it back down, put more oil on it and try to go back up.

 

I admit, I do NOT know the new ones or 4wd, I've only driving out 74 and earlier 2wd, they have a swedge bolt kinda hard to see from road tar and mud, that has to be removed. Again, I do NOT know on either 4WD or anything newer than 74, only trying to help. Even with that removed and weeks and cans of pb blaster, I broke the plastic covering off on a nice blue point hammer beating them, and wore out a set of Harbor Fright brass punches from India. I bet the holy living $$$t out of them. Mine did NOT go easy...other folks claim no issue. If it's not coming out with soaking and beating and oxy/ac torch, you're in same lucky boat I have been in.

 

It'll likely take at least a 4 pound hammer. Ballpeen or framing won't generate enough force if you're in my same lucky boat.

 

I have had success in the past using a combination of heat, an air hammer equipped with a wide blunt driver punch.

 

IIRC the pin can got up or down and what DaveF said is worth trying.
If you can put the full weight on each pin, keep soaking them and let them sit a night or 2 to see if they will come up that way.
Don't whack on the spindle top as you will deform the top and not get the cap to thread back on whack on the beams close to the pins.

My suspension was out of the truck and only had a MAP gas torch. I also used the air hammer, 5lb sledge and metal punches and a lot of good words to get mine out.
With the lock bolt out if you move the spindle left & right do you see the pin move?
I was able to get my pin to move like that so I knew it was only stuck in the spindle.
I then used the MAP gas torch to get it to move in the spindle.

I have been thinking of pulling mine apart again and removing a shim or 2 as they are to tight and the wheels will not return to center after a turn and makes for a fun drive .... NOT!
Good luck
Dave ----

 

New king pins need to be straight line reamed. You are far better off taking each axle out and pressing them apart. It's far to hard to press new bushings and get them reamed properly in the truck. Also don't heat the end of the I beam as it will start to taper up and change suspension geometry and then you will need a I beam bender to align it.

 

If you manage to get the spindles off and you do not have access to a centering adjustable ream take them to a engine machine shop that has a Sunnen honing machine to get them fitted up.

 

Awesome thanks for all the great info! I got them out with a sledge hammer and some more heat and pb blaster. I actually went back out there in my pajamas last night after cooling off a little bit.. closed the door and went ham on it. I think I pulled something in my back but I feel bad for the truck its out there probably still seeing stars. It's entirely possible that I knocked something out of alignment though.. At the time I saw no other option than to go full Ram Jam. But what was even tougher was getting the bushings out today. A 22mm socket was the perfect size to drive them out, only thing is I had to then drive the socket out too!

Ordered an adjustable reamer its coming in the mail...

What do you think of my plan:

I'm gonna put the spindle in the bench vise and drive the bushings in. If I cant tap them in nicely with some kind of driver that fits good in there then I'll figure out how to press them in with some other tool (any ideas here?) Next: I'm gonna leave it in the vise and ream it bit by bit until the kingpin just slides and twists in there. Then I'm gonna install it on the axle.

Do I need to ream the whole assembly on the axle? Can I ream the axle separately? Should the whole thing assembly in nicely or should it need more tapping?

 

The axle should not be reamed, unless it has a large bugger in it and the pin won't slide through. You still want the pin to be tight in the axle, you do not want the pin to be sloppy and trying to turn in the axle, it only turns on the spindle bushings. So you probably will have to give the new pin some love taps to get it through the axle.

 

you've got a choice now, if I recall, of nylon bushings or bronze ones that require reaming. which way you go will likely determine if you have to do this again. nylon is fast and easy, but who knows when you'll get to do it again.

 

I got the bushings. They are made of a steel shell with a bronze liner on the inside. I drove them into the spindle piece using a driver tool I made out of the old king pin and two stainless washers. The washers were lucky to be 1 5/32" OD. The exact same OD as the bushing. A bigger washer would have worked though, because I wanted to tap the bushings in from the inside of the spindle to avoid damaging the grease cap threads on the other side.

I welded two washers together to make it a little more stout. But I think 1 would've worked fine. I cut a short piece of the old kingpin to match the length of the new bushing. I sanded the kingpin down a bit to fit inside the new bushing.


Then welded the inside of the washers onto the top of the piece of king pin. Making sure the washer is dead center


The tool has to be small enough to fit in this space about two inches



Tapped it in from the outside using a brass drift till the bushing was flush


Ready for reaming

 

The bushings are in the spindles not the beams so no reason to pull the beams.

Someone should have told the machine shop I used how the bushings get reamed. They said they have done them before so I never gave it a thought they would mess it up.
They reamed 1 side for the pin to fit them turned it around and did the other side. Come time to put the front end together the pins would not fit thru the spindles.

I had to use MAP gas to heat the spindles & beams to get the pins out and never heard of the beams getting a taper? How does that happen? I can also tell you other than needing to set toe alignment was with in spec.

I first checked with a engine machine shop about pressing the bushings and reaming and they side they do not do that type of machine work.
Then see the above post on the only machine shop that others told me to use did the job.
Thing is I don't think the homing machine will go small enough to fit the bushings.
Dave ----

 

Yup I'm realizing that the reamer I have coming in the mail is not a piloted centering reamer it's just a regular reamer. Like you all said these holes both have to be reamed in line with each other and not just reamed separately which I couldn't seem to figure out until just now. I'll need a conic pilot sleeve on the end of the reamer.... it's another special tool... Trying to figure out how I'm going to do it with a regular reamer ... Probably can't or I might end up like Fuzz Face Dave

 

Call around to the local old machine shops, I bet at least one of them will have a set of centering reamers and will do the job for you. If there is a Trade School in your area that teaches machine trades could also be a source.