I beam swap
 

Does anyone know if you can swap the old king pin I beams for the newer style I beams that have adjustable ball joints? Or, how do you align the older I beams?

Dunno about newer beams with ball joints but the kingpin style i-beams are "aligned' (ahem, "bent") using braces, chains, and a bottle jack... it's quite ...ummm.. what's the term?... Aha.. "primitive".

It doesn't need to be anything but primitive. Once set an I Beam suspension almost never needs reset (camber or caster). If so it is an indicator something is bad & needs replaced.

Yeah - not primitive at all, but rather closer to a "real" truck = big truck. Just not super practical anymore... Kingpins are much stronger than ball joints & wear out much less.

To answer the original post - no, newer beams are NOWHERE near a bolt in swap.

To align you'd need to have an old school alignment shop or big truck alignment shop check the thing & do the work.

What is the truck doing that it needs an alignment? Tires pointing in at the top (bad camber) due to coil sag? Or you trying to lift/lower it or what?

It's primitive in relative terms given today's technology... like using a hub-mounted bubble gauge versus lasers and mirrors for alignments.

http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/g...nk/camber2.png http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/g...unk/camber.png

Okay, shackles.

Lemme grab a cold one from the ice box, fill 'er up with Ethyl, and dial the rotary phone. :-X03

I'd gladly have someone who had the knowledge to align one of these trucks work on mine rather than the $6/hr kid most of todays alignment shops have work on it. They throw the thing on the rack, make sure the computer says "it's good" (more like - eh, it might work) and they scoot you out.

I'll take stronger over easier just because in most cases.