When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Hello, I need to change the king pins in my 350, how do I go about this? Have changed ball joints but never pins. The book talks about reaming the holes out whats this about? Thanks
The kingpin spindle assembly has metal bushings pressed into the upper and lower kingpin bore. After the new bushings have been installed they need to be reamed to the proper ID, so that the king pins will fit. In order to do this job you will need to have a bushing remover/installer and the proper size reamer. These kingpin assemblies can be a real PITA to remove from the truck to begin with and if you do not have the tools for the job you might want to consider farming this one out. They do make nylon bushing kingpin rebuild kits that do not require reaming, but I here they do not hold up very well and you'll end up doing the job again in a couple of years or so.
If you do farm the job out, you can take them to a machine shop, call around your town or town near by for price qoutes and check if they have the tools to do the king pin bushing job. Definitely replace with the brass bushings.
I say do it yourself up to the point where you take the spindles to an automotive machine shop and they replace the bushings and supply new pins.
I did that, and it was supposed to be $10 per side machine shop labor... the price came down $10 total, not wanting to get anyone into trouble "why is it cheaper?" The counter guy went back, talked to the shop-guys, came back "because they were so clean they didn't have to clean them so it's $10 total".
YMMV (that was 10 years ago)
I cleaned them because I know how it is in those shops junk in, junk out.
A certain level of effort and a certain amount of time is going to be spent on your part, if it's clean as a whistle...