I've read a few posts when people share their hindsight and have found it helpful, so I thought I would pass on what I learned doing the front end swap from a 76 donor to my 66 "acceptor". Both were 2wd models.

First, these king pins almost drove me out of my mind. Didn't seem like it should be so difficult, but it was. When I got the donor front end, I had the guy I was buying it from simply cut the frame behind the front cab mounts and bring me the whole thing (no engine, but still had the steering stuff). The truck had been picked apart and left sitting in a field behind his house. I paid $150 but got the booster and master cylinder too. Since I had been quoted around $75 per spindle from a junk yard, I thought the $150 was fair - probably not the best I could do, but fair.

I tore into it and took all the brake, steering, and spindle pieces off. I cleaned everything, repainted, really tried to do a good job. When I went to the NAPA to get a new set of king pins, I was asked if I wanted nylon or metal bushings. I simply followed my instincts thinking that metal would be the "better" of the two choices. Now is when it got sticky.

I found I could pound the bushings in with some scrap oak I had laying around, although not well and not necessarily all the way. I started to try and knock in the king pins when it became quickly apparent that there would be no possible way it would go in. Alas! I turned to the FTE site for help and was informed I would have to have the bushings machined to match the pins. I called a variety of machine shops, none of which wanted anything to do with it. Of course the NAPA shop would, but for $48. One piece of FTE advice was to simply go slow and use a brake hone to hone them out. Seemed cheap, seemed possible, so I tried. Paid $15 to have them properly pressed in place and then went to honing. Tore up my brake hone in no time flat and then a second my wife picked up for me while she was in town (truthfully I need to get my money back on this one, it came apart so fast it was ridiculous and although it wasn't being used on brake cylinders, honing should be honing). Finally found a backyard machinist not 5 minutes from my house who honed them out perfectly for $25 in an afternoon. Bottomline, if i get my money back for the brake hone, I will be ahead about $8 over the price NAPA quoted me - plus I didn't have to drive 30 miles each way to get it done.

So, last weekend I actually put something back ON my truck after having spent the last year or so tearing things apart. A change in the wind you might say. Felt good. Poly bushings look cool, things are still painted and look somewhat fresh, and I can at least point to one thing as re-assembed when my wife starts telling our friends that there is no way I'll ever be able to put it all back together. If everything is this hard, though, I'm not sure I'll make it.

Key lessons
Nylon is probably fine and you really should question whether you even need to replace them if there is no slop initially
Might be worth paying a few extras bucks to avoid lots of delays and headaches
If they say it has to be machined, it probably has to be machined, a $6.99 brake hone isn't likely to work

 

When I had to do the king pins on my 64.I had no problem finding the parts but,finding someone who knew how to machine them to fit was another story.The one place that I knew how to do it wanted $75 per spindle so,I stopped by a hole in the wall place I seen on my way home from work.They said give a couple of days and $30 per spindle.Next day they called and said there were ready,fit like a glove when I put it togather.

 

For future reference to those who may find this on a search--I'd suggest trying TRUCK repair shops the get the bronze bushings reamed to size. Heavy trucks still use kingpins, and this should not be a mysterious operation to them. Hope it helps.

I haven't found a set of Twin I Beam kingpins that was sloppy yet, but I also haven't worked on that many. I reused mine; they are nice and snug.

 

I had king pins, bearings - all that - tie rod ends done on my 64 only 2 years ago. My right wheel is now loose again. What happened??

 

I just paid $100 at a local Ford guru machine shop who rebuilt the I-beams from a '73 donor - removed old king pins, removed old axle bushings, tanked the axles, pressed in new pivot bushings, brass bushings, honed them and installed new king pins (I supplied the new bushings and king pins sets). Not something I wanted to pay for but I didn't have the equipment to do myself.

We should be good to go for another 150K miles!

 

y old 64 f250 had the same problem after 6 months. Never did figure it out - the rest of the truck fell apart first. I always figured the shop did a shoddy job at reaming the bushings and made up for it with grease.