OK,

I took my '75 F100 in for an alignment and they told me the front end King Pins need to be replaced...to the tune of $600. A royal ransom obviously.

I took a look in my manuals and I don't see anything that difficult. Am I missing something...

Remove tire, front discs / disc sheild, Remove tie rod, remove pin bolt, remove grease caps top a and bottom, drive out pin.

Have shop press in new bushings, drive in new pin, new thrust bearing on bottom and put the sucker back together.

I assume I will be challenged driving out the pin, right? I have a small Bernzo torch.. will heat help? How hard is all of this? What should I expect for a shop bill?

How long will it take for a backyard mechanic? How many knuckles will I bust up? What is the atbadw? (average time between a discouraging word)


thanks
Gonzo

 

I have done some that took about 2 hours and others that took 4. You are right about getting them out, that will be the challenge. And yes heat is the way to go if they are not moving. I would say about a 3 knuckle job on your first one. Most shops put a little higher price on older trucks because of the rust factor. I had a shop tell me 950 for trans. work,he looked at it, and the second quote over the phone was 1200. He said it would take extra time getting it out. Erv

 

Thanks, I'm wondering if there is anyway to apply a hydraulic jack to the top or bottom of it to press it out. I recently replaced the steering gear box. The pitman arm was on tight. It required a special puller. Otherwise I was able to break all the other bolts.

 

I have never heard of one. I use a small 8#. Hope you have a place inside to do this. I know its cold here in northern Ohio. Makes me cold just thinking about doing that. I have about 800 to 900 lbs. of tools in my truck all the time. On my 89 2wd it seemed to make them go bad every two years. Now I have my 78 4x4 back on the road.It seems to handle it better. Erv

 

I forgot to tell you, I use a real good grease on them now. Can not think of the name of it but it runs about $20 a tube. I just use it on them, have a special gun just for that tube. If I can find the name I'll get it to you. It really seems tomake them last. Erv

 

thanks for the information on the greas. I may need a space heater for the garage. The only problem is I can get the door completely closed. I intend on using brass bushings instead of nylons. I don't want to have to mess with this for quite a while. I'm in Chicago area, so it's really cold. Lived in Alliance and Clyde Ohio growing up.

thanks
Gonzo

 

Put jack or blocks under axle for support. Use a cutting torch with rose bud tip. Heat spindle housing not pin. After it is out lightly hone with brake cyl hone.

 

If the pins have been regularly greased, they should come right out. I just did the ones on my 73 for the first time in its life and they slid out easily. They are not held in by friction. Instead, there is a keeper bolt in the I-Beam which keeps them from dropping out. By contrast, years ago when I did the ones in my 67 which were never greased, it took hours of pounding to get them out. I had to remove the I-Beam and set it on a wood block on my driveway where I could really pound on it with a maul. Be careful not to use too much heat on any of those parts.

When you have the shop press in the new bushings, make sure you give them the new king pins too. Tell them to ream the bushings so that the kingpins JUST pass through the bushings. If they are too loose, the bushings will wear too fast. They should not be so tight that you need to drive the pins through the bushings.

When I did this job on my 73 F100, it cost me about $60 for the kingpin set and $80 for the ream. It took about 8 hours to do the entire job from start to finish.

Once you have it all back together, grease the kingpins each time you change the oil and you will never have another problem with them.

 

Greasing the pins has little to do with how they come out. The axle eye is where the
rust occures which binds the pin fast, and there is no way to get grease in that bore. Since the pin is held stationary in the bore what else can we expect. When you get a new set of pins make sure the axle eye is not loose, put the pin into it and it should be tight, no movement or in a couple of month you will think the bushings are bad again.

 

Greasing the bushings has everything to do with how easy the kingpins will come out. If you can keep the upper and lower sides of the I-Beam smothered in grease, the grease will help keep water and salt out of the beam. If you can keep water and salt out of the beam, the pin will not rust in there. I had 2 trucks: one was rarely greased and the other was greased every oil change. It was a huge job to get the pins out of the one that was rarely greased. When I did the pins on the truck that was greased at every oil change, the pins dropped right out. Just to be safe, I coated the new pins with anti-sieze before putting them in place.

 

whalerron, haveing worked for two fleets in my years in vehicle maintenance I wish that was the case. Perhaps where the vehicle was used had some bearing on the ease of removal but three thousand mile lubes never did. My observations.