spindle bolt lock pin woes

J

Jake's 40

Junior Member
first post. please be gentle ;)
the patient is my greatgrandfathers '40 Merc. which I inherited in the early 70s. early 80's my brother & I got her running, had her painted & had most of the interior done... until I ran out of money :D
now the old girl is coming out of a long hibernation. in preparation for her 80th birthday party I'll be taking a closer look at everything.
at this point I'm knee deep in the front suspension.
the driver side spindle removal was a snap. play is minimal so back together it goes.
the pass. side...not so much. loose juice ? sure. (Aero Kroil) I stepped up to a single jack. no help. air hammer ? nothin' doin'.
I get about .010 back-and-forth travel out of the spindle lock pin and that's it.
feedback appreciated.

jerry
 

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Hi Jerry.

What are you trying to do? Remove the kingpin?

Normally you loosen the domed nut a few turns, and give it a good sharp hit with a hammer. that will start the cotter pin moving, and then a few gentle taps will take it right out (after removing the nut, of course).

Don't be afraid to give it a good hit, you won't break anything, but make sure you have the correct domed nut (it acts as the steering stop) and have it backed off a couple of turns.

Then the kingpins should tap out upwards.

Mart.
 
hi Mart;
thanks for the reply. yes, I want to R&R the spindles / king pins. clean up old grease, check for slop, grease & reassemble if OK.
what you describe is exactly what happened on the driver side.
on the pass. side the lock pin (cotter) isn't playing nice. no clue what could only let it travel a tiny bit but no further.

jerry
 
Those lock bolts are tapered. Perhaps drilling a small hole in the flat end of the bolt will relieve pressure and make removal easier. Do you have an air hammer? That would do the trick.
 
thanks 19Fordy. understood, I had the driver side apart a few days ago.
I did try an air hammer, but that didn't work either.
at one point I thought there was a burr in the front opening of the lock pin hole. I did go at it with a rat tail file, but will have a closer look. all parts have been soaking in Kroil for a couple of days.
even if I only get a slight bit of travel out of the lock pin should there be a corresponding bit of travel (up & down) out of the spindle / kingpin ?
 
Are you hitting the lock pin in the correct Direction. Also it must be out in order for the king pin to move up and down.
 
I unscrew the lockpin nut, remove the lockwasher, screw the nut back on nearly all the way and hit it with a bfh, when it moves, unscrew the nut more and hit it again.
 
tap the king pin up/down a little while hitting on the lock pin--pins can sometimes get a little misshaped from being overtightened--sort of a rolled up area, if it is moving that should do the trick
 
I mentioned cotter. It's a term we use here in England sometimes to describe a wedge shaped locking pin. When I was a kid the pins that hold the cranks on our pedal bikes were called cotter pins. If you put them both in from the same sides the pedals go out of synch.

Just mentioning that as something easy to visualise.
 
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