Front axle king-pin bolts

SofaKing

SofaKing

Well-known member
I replaced the kingpins and bushings on my 39 pu last December. This morning I had the front jacked-up and noticed that both king pins were loose in the axle and the tapered bolts securing the kingpins were not very tight. I snugged the bolts and the play between the kingpins and axel is gone (for now). I noticed one bolt is now well below flush on the axle.

Is there a standard repair for the axle hole, that installs bushings for instance, to eliminate side-play between the kingpin and axle? Any other suggestions? Thanks
 
No, not really. It might be worth looking out for another axle of the same type and doing a swap.

The kingpins should be a good snug fit in the axle, and not relying on the cotter bolts to provide any support. They are just to locate lengthwise and resist turning.

Mart.
 
most of the aftermarket king pin bolts do the same thing, not sure why, but they exist to keep the king pin in the axle, not really anything else. if it tightened up then I would not worry but I would check them every time I was under truck for oil change, etc
 
You can resize them but if i say anymore there will be a shitstorm. BUT one thing i ran into but not saying it will fix it, i reused a old,maybe original ford lock pin with a new set of aftermarmet king pins and it fit tighter then the new one. Might have gotten lucky.
 
I have a 34 axle that the kingpins bind in the spindle when you tighten the lock bolt. There is no apparent play in the axle hole........... Loosen that lock bolt and everything works fine and these are original NOS parts.
 
I considered the possibility that the replacement lockpin is softer than the Ford unit, it seems to be extruding right through the hole in the axle. But as pointed out, a harder pin is not a repair for the wobbled-out kingpin hole. A "good machine shop..."; if I could find one, I expect the set-up time to oversize the axle holes while maintaining the hole center and angle would become expensive quickly, especially compared to a replacement.

I was thinking maybe there was a drill fixture that attaches to the axel and it could be reamed and bushed in-situ. And then I was hoping that someone here might know where such a fixture could be obtained.
 
I think "More Drop" used torch heat and some sort of molding type anvil/ hammer arrangement to shrink the ends. They would then be somewhat deformed and need reaming/honing. Sunnen (hone) has made a mandrel with a ujoint incorporated that could be used for this.
The guy I learned most of my machine shop stuff from has told me that one could heat an axle then quench the outside to get some shrink. I have not had positive results from this.

If you can't tell, this is all second hand... I would like to see if this rings any thoughts from anyone else...

Karl
 
i agree with skid marks, they are not much in demand. okie joe the axle dropper only pays 50 bucks for cores of that type
 
The axle is most probably fine. The repo pins are soft. Get some original pins .I have had king pins so soft that the brass bushings were harder.
 
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