King Pins Anyone in MN that can do them

kketchmark

Member
Looking for someone in MN that can replace the King Pins in my 49 F1 pickup. Axle is removed and I have the kit for them. I have it at a shop but it has been 6 months and still waiting.
 
Find a NAPA with a machine shop; when I lived in Prior Lake, there was a good one in Shakopee.
 
What part of MN?

The kingpins for my 40 deluxe were machined to fit, came out awesomeEdit: this was in Crookston MN

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13/16ths maybe. I wanted to buy a reamer, but couldn't find one that would guide off of the other side of the spindle for a price I wanted to pay. Did the probably smart thing and took it to the machine shop.
 
.812 is the old fords, i have that, and some other misc stuff from sales. problem is, i am not familiar with "modern" 49&up stuff. i am not in business, just maybe can help the guy out. 6 months at a shop, i can relate, seat for my coupe was dropped off in February, with an expected date of April, nearly sept and haven't seen it yet. so...is a 49 1/2 ton still .812?
 
Yep. The F1 King pin is 0.8125.


I did it myself, believe it or not. I used the cheapest chinese made adjustable reamer from amazon to do the job. It was around 8$ shipped!!! It has a 3/8 square which you're supposed to turn the tool with. On this square however, I placed a 3/8 socket which had a good perimeter fit in the opposite bushing to act as a pilot. For reaming, I used a normal spanner on the outer adjustable nut on the opposite side of the reamer. Once tight, it does not go tighter even if you use it to turn the tool. OK, it is a little fincky to readjust and took me 3hrs to finish this one off job. But in the end it was done the proper way with a guided reamer, the result is great now and I got around to buy a pilot adjustable reamer which is around 250-300 Euros here. All I spent was 8$.

I hope you get how I did it, or I can dig in my files and post a picture from the process
 
Hi Titus,


Sounds interesting and I'd like to see your pictures if not to much trouble to find.


Glenn
 
Thanks everyone. I have a couple options. Have to call the shop again and see if they plan to get to it next week or not.
 
I would be afraid that they would lose the spindles in the amount of time they have been there. It isn't that big of a job. They should be able to do it this week or go somewhere else. It sounds like they have had 25 next weeks already.
 
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Now, there you go. The $8 reamer. One trick is not to lean too hard on the wrench while cranking, as not to egg shape the hole. Be genle, the tool drags in all by itself when turned. I covered to socket with one layer of self adhesive aluminum foil, to take the last few thou slop away. Works like a charm. In fact, I liked this setup more than the original tool with the pilots and the two sliding cones.


I did it not exactly for the fun of it, but beeing utterly sick and tired of asking around, I simply did it myself.


The bushings went out and in again with a large bench wise and a couple appropriate sockets as push Tools.
 
While everybody seems to want to spend up and have a machine shop do the bushings with their Sunnen hone; piloted king pin reamers did the job for years; and still work pretty good, too.
 

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I did my first set in 1964 using a brake hone. While I don't recommend it, I never had a problem with the car. I just took my time.
 
Personally I'd use a reamer. Your really not setting the axle, it's the spindles inline with the axle bearings that matter. Most any machine shop would do it in an hour. Granted if they have time.
 
While everybody seems to want to spend up and have a machine shop do the bushings with their Sunnen hone; piloted king pin reamers did the job for years; and still work pretty good, too.

rich b has the right idea... one of those reamers was one of the first automotive tools I bought in '68/69.
 
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