LOL, yup, things tend to snowball.

Good progress!

 

Decided to take care of that crack in the cross member under the cab. Recall, this is what is was-


Cracked cross member under cab.

I cleared off the rust and rigged a few clamps to pull the gap in. The weld came out nice. Sometimes it's like I know how to weld.

 

And I CAN'T just put the rusty, broken bits back on.

 

The old cab brackets have deep penetrating rust around the holes for the cab support bolt and one of them has a cracked flange. I decided to replace both and bought new ones from LMC. They look really nice except that 4 of the holes do not align well with the existing holes on the frame. The the front-side pair of holes were a matter of a few minutes with a round file to open up the holes and get bolts in. the pair of top holes were another matter. These were offset to a greater degree and they are more critical to be aligned. Since the weight of the cab generates sideways-outward force on the top of the bracket I want these holes to be well aligned and snug. These photos shows the initial holes well offset and actually offset in the least desirable direction.




To fix this I first filed the holes in the bracket until I could just get a bolt inserted. Then I add metal to the opposite side by welding.




Finally some time with a flat file and round file made it good.




The driver's side was the same way.

Finally, both brackets fit well.

 

So, with the two (known) frame cracks fixed and the new cab support arms fitted it was time to start prepping for media blasting and paint. A few days of struggling and determination saw the rear leaf spring pins removed and the rear suspension came off. Then the steering box and front suspension were removed. Anything else that was bolted or screwed to the frame was removed.

Then.... I was inspecting for unknown unknowns and spotted a pinhole of light.



what is that pinhole?

Then I felt the underside and remembered a forgotten known problem. ( We will now dispense with Rumsfeld-isms.) In short, The truck had helper springs when I bought it. One of the areas where the helper springs rubbed the frame was worn through, creating the pinhole. Here is the underside..







So I sighed the big sigh and got out the welder...



scrubbed the rust off

and made a doubler plate of 1/8-inch steel


welded the doubler in first

Then ran several beads to fill the quite large groove worn in the bottom


Ground the bottom flat

again, ground the bottom flat

One step closer to painting the frame.

 

Do you have a before picture with the helper springs? Mine hit a stop bolted to the side of the frame. Dennis

Something like this.

 

sadly,no picture. But I can assure you these were DIY helpers. Shortish springs set inboard of the Ford spring, directly under the frame rails. Most likely repurposed junkyard hardware. The square cut end of the leaves pushed directly on the frame. If it matters to any body I could reconstruct it for educational purposes. The parts are in the recycle pile outside.

 

It's always something.
I have found that my best looking welds are in areas where no one will ever see them. On the welds that are right out in the open for all to see, well.... ...sometimes those look like a flock of buzzards flew over....LOL

Nice catch on the worn spot from the homemade helper springs.
Bobby

 

I honestly love how these trucks were spared no love when used. They abused these things like rented mules.

 

this one was likely stacked to the sky with hay bales and then bumped over unimproved roads. We already know it was maintained with bailing wire.

 

Well, I finally got the frame off to media-blast and powder coat.

With that out of the shop I have room to work on "refreshing" both axles. Starting with the front.
Stripping the hubs, brakes, and backing plates was straight-forward, though a bit messy.

We had noticed some slop in one of the king pins and the other "turned" quite stiffly. So it seemed necessary to have the king pins out. Since the axles was already out of the truck I rigged the lift to hold it in location while pressing the pins out.



I went straight to the press for king pin removal

Here are the various spindles and pin components, removed.




Now I have a question. I mentioned that one spindle had some movement. I cleaned the crud out of both holes in the axle and put a new, standard size, pin in to check fit. It slid right in and wiggles a bit. I measured 0.007 inch sideways motion. I attach a movie of that measurement-

Do I need to change over to to a 0.010" oversize pin? What are folks normally doing with this?

 

That's a tough call. I'd say borderline needing to bore OS. I don't know if there's anyone in town who would do that kind of work, if they do it will be a couple hundred bucks I'd guess. I don't know who I'd trust, either.

The spindle that was hard to turn; I wonder if someone put in new bushings but didn't properly ream or hone them? How are the bushings on both sides?

Might be you could shim the pin in the axle, using a piece of one of the old pins to hold a shim in place while you drive in the new one? If the bushings are still good, this might be worth just cleaning it up and driving it to see if the slop is a problem once the wedge pin is in.

 

The pin doesn't move once the retaining wedge goes in, so there should be no wear on your axle. I'm not sure about your movement but I'm guessing that after the wedge(or whatever it's called) is in and tightened there will be no movement. I never even checked my axle as I knew the wear is between the king pin and the bushings in the spindles. I never even took my axle out. I bought oversize kingpins and bushings (which were way too big) and had to return them for standard as that was what I used. Of course you will have to get the bushings installed in the spindles and then reamed to fit the new pins, but you only have to take the spindles in to do that. You can see what I did in my build thread, if you want.

 

Ross, An inspection shows that the likely culprit for "hard to turn" is the very poor condition of the thrust bearings. Both are rusty and lumpy. One is nearly seized. The shims are also rusty. New bearings and shims ought to make it steer well enough. The bushings are surprisingly good. A new standard pin fits nicely in one spindle but is loose in the other. The movement I noted before dis-assembly was on the loose side.

Greg, Even though the wedge pin locks the king pin in place, I still see opportunity for movement of the king pin in an overly large hole. The wedge pin will press the king pin hard against the outboard side of the hole. It won't turn or move up and down, but with a gap (of 0.007" in my case) the torque of the truck weight on the spindle will act to bend the king pin inward with the wedge pin as the fulcrum of this teeter-totter. This qualitative argument does not go very far as we don't know how stiff the king-pin is. But, if the king pin is super stiff, then all of the spindle torque force is concentrated on the wedge contact point. If the king pin flexes then the upper half slaps around in the axle. The former would tend to flatten and loosen the wedge over time. The latter would cause wear on the axle. We just don't know which way the problem goes or how serious out is.

The upshot is that I have ordered oversized pins and will evaluate and make a decision upon receipt. With a 0.007" slop in my axle, a quick touch-up of the axle holes with a brake cylinder hone may see the larger pins tap right in. I may just leave the existing bushings in-place and open them up to fit the new pins.

 

I forgot to thank both of you , Ross and Greg, for your input. It is helpful to know that this situation is borderline and could go either way. This means I have options and don't have to take extreme measures to go oversize.
Allen