I have a question / possible problem. I put in all new frontend parts, tie rod, ends, king pins, a new sway bar kit from mid-50's. I took everything apart, took the pins, bushings and spindles to the machine shop. The guy reamed them to fit but told me he liked them to be a bit tight. Installed the new pins and they went in fairly easy, had to tap in with a hammer but not too hard however, after I installed the pins / spindles on the drivers side with out the tie rod hooked up I could barely move the spindle, took a lot of force. The other side was not as tight however still tighter then I think it should be. So put everything back together and took it for a spin and the steering will not center back up on it's own when I make turns. So if I turn right or left, it just stays and I have to bring it back to center with the steering wheel. I will tell you that is a very strange feeling. Do you think the king pins are too tight or is there something else going on. All stock front end except for PS and disk brakes.

 

Sure sounds like it, King pins should drop right in afaik.

 

Dave I am doing the same exact thing. I just installed a series 400 power steering but does not center and somtimes seems to hit a small bind. I have ordered king pins and am going to install them. After that I will put on the down and forward springs I am doing each thing by itself then drive so that I may pinpoint any problems. I will follow your thread . Do you notice any difference with the sway bar as I also bought one.
Thanks Art

 

King pins should slide in through the spindle by hand pressure only, never beat in with a hammer.
I've always had my bushings honed, similar to honing connecting rod ends, instead of reamed. Reaming can sometimes chatter causing high and low ridges on the bushing that can cause premature wear in the future. If at all possible for you to remove the pins, return them to your machinist to have them honed for proper clearance of the pin. I,m not near my manuals to check specs but if memory serves me correct, clearance should be somewhere around .001" - .002".

 

Yes, the sway bar is a must, stopped all the body roll and some other issues. Will keep you posted. thanks.

 

Sounds too tight, but I have to ask, did you grease them?

 

Regarding the cpp400 box, some people have had problems with the PS boxes that do not centre after a turn, so that might be a problem with the box instead of the spindles and balljoints, even if its brand new......

Just sayin

 

I'd try to remove the tight king pin and see if there's a problem. Should have checked it BEFORE you installed it for fit. Having to Bang around on a new king pin makes me think you might not have had it lined up properly. You may also have to add some caster shims. Have you had it aligned yet?
Not sure about the 400 steering box issues.

 

I will have to check on that. What have they done about it what are the procedures? How can anyone prove it? Let me know and I will call mid fifty or cpp. Thank you for the info. I still think that I will replace the king pins first. They are coming out of Kentucky and are moog that I bought from Bumper to Bumper I could have purchased through Rockauto or whatever that is but this way my dollars go to people I know.

 

Also bad tie rod ends will contribute to steering that won't return to center. They aren't particularly expensive and should probably be replaced on GP if they haven't already. Ford used the same rod ends for many many years so they are common.

With bearings, they are fine for a long time, no appreciable play or slop. But, when they DO start to wear watch out, they go from OK, to "Holy $@#%!!", very quickly so keep an eye on them.

 

Yes, when reamed or honed to proper clearance, the lightly greased pin should be able to be pushed in by thumb pressure only. Take it to another machine shop that has the proper piloted reamer or a long enough Sunnen hone machine to align hone both bushings at the same time and know how to use it. Sorry to say you may need to once again replace the new bushings and kingpins if the 1st machinist or the hammering has damaged yours beyond saving. Sorry, but sometimes lessons learned can be a bit expensive. Before reassembly be sure to shoot a small amount of grease in each grease fitting to verify it is reaching the inside of the bushing. Never put them together dry. After the kingpins are installed, fully grease each one until grease starts to ooze out around the bushings. Before hooking up the tierod ends you should be able to pivot the spindle on the kingpins by pushing on the end of the spindle with one finger. They should move smoothly from stop to stop. When Gary sent his axle to Sid to be dropped he also sent the spindles. Sid rebushed them and put in new kingpins. His spindles move like they are on high precision ball bearings.

 

thanks everyone. after reading everyone's posts, I do feel the pins are the problem and way too tight. I did not have a steering issue until the new pins, so I know it's not the box. After I installed the pins I could not move the drivers side spindle by hand. I think I'm going to just order a new kingpin kit and find another shop who knows what the heck they are doing. thanks again.

 

I have a friend that has put in a CPP400 box together with a new saginaw pump, the only changes he made was the box and pump. After bleeding the system and a few laps around the block he lost power assist and the pump started to howl. He took the pump appart and found small metal shavings in the reliefpressure valve screen.

We still dont know if the shavings came from the pump or the box but he had to repeat this process 3 or 4 times, then there where no more shavings in the screen. New fluid every time.

But now he has the problem that when the truck is cold and he fires it up he will have good power assist until the fluid becomes hot then he looses the power assist and it stops centreing the wheels.

He has meassured the pressure on the box inlet and that is good so the pump is working as it should,

This is where we are at as we speek

He will try and measure the pressure on the outlet port on the box as the next step to find out if he has excessive pressure on the outlet port indicating a blockage on the return hose. Othervise it can only be something wrong inside the PS box.....

He showed me some other forum where they had the same type of box but in a nother application and they had the exact same symptoms.

A separation inside the return hose might explain the above symptoms..... but the pressure measurment on the outlet port will give us a clue

 

EXCELLENT idea!