I had pulled a front disc brake front suspension from a '75 F100 and I'm currently in the process of breaking it down to clean the parts up and then sell them for some funds to spend on my own truck.








After I got the kingpin out of this spindle, I could see that the inboard side of the nylon bushing was worn down paper thin. With the suspension under the load of the truck, this would have caused the wheel to have excessive negative camber. However, with both the upper and lower nylon bushings worn like this, the spindle (and thus the wheels) would have wobbled around in both positive and negative camber, positive and negative caster and anywhere in between while the truck was travelling down the road.

I would imagine it would have been a hand full trying to keep the truck between the lines while going over bumps and dips when driving down the highway.

Bronze kingpin bushings require more effort to install but, if greased regularly, will far out last nylon bushings.

 

Absolutely agreed

I found the job highly satisfying having handled it personally and knowing the tolerances first hand.

A piloted adjustable hand reamer worked well for me. They're only meant to cut a maximum of .002" per pass, very controllable.

A press is ideal for installing the bushings, but I was able to get it done by drawing them in with a piece of all thread after leaving the spindles in the Sun and freezing the bushings.

 

I had made a simple tool on the lathe for installing the kingpin bushings.

 

That all looks good. Do the bushings have to be reamed after you put them in to fit the pin?

 

Yes. Pressing the bronze bushings into the spindle bores compresses the bushings and makes the bushing I.D. smaller. This has to be opened up with a reamer to fit the bushings to the pins. In the case of the F100/F150 kingpins, the kingpin diameter is .859" (55/64").

 

That's nice! I might have tried to do the same but the only lathe I have is a table top Sherline, it will do it but at .005" passes and I didn't have the patience for it for a job I won't do again till I'm retired.

I bet that you could seat the upper bushing in at the right recessed depth to insert the grease seal in the bottom of the upper bore quite accurately with that driver!

 

Nice tool! Now do you do the Loan-A-Tool program?! If not I bet you could make some good money making those things.

 

This is just a basic rough sketch I had made in a pocket notebook, for a tool design with a shoulder on it, so that it would have a positive stop for inserting the bushing at the correct depth in one pass.

 

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