Steering Spindle Bushings

V

Vic in E-TN

Well-known member
I am working on my 31 Vickie. Looking to put in front seat belts, but that is another thing. My steering was sort of OK but when I stopped in a certain way the infamous death wobble appeared. I will need to do something with the Radius Rod ball later. I replaced the passenger side steering arm with an old ball diameter of 0.95 with new ball one. The wheel bearings needed to be checked and tightened up a little and I checked the wheel side to side and vertically for movement. It could be improved and I wanted to check the driver's side. I checked the drivers tie rod ball and it was 0.97. The steering ball was harder to access so I pronounced the 2-ball arm acceptable for now. Everything had more than enough grease. The side to side tire movement overall could use a fair amount of improvement. The vertical tire/wheel movement was very bad and my thoughts went to king pin replacement. I was going to purchase a king pin reamer from the likes of Snyder's or others. The current price compared to the printed catalog was scary for a one time use and I could not scare up one in my club. Between 20 and 12 years ago I purchased several chassis for spare parts. It took me a few hours to find the old parts. I had 5 sets of spindle arms and some old and new king pins. I went through them. You can measure the OD of the pins but not really the ID of the bushings. I am still working on cleaning up and painting everything. The recommended clearance is 0.0015 to 0.0020. That cannot be checked with gauges. You need to allow the king pin to fall slowly through the bushings. I assume that means that there needs to be some grease on the pins. This test is for the next day or two.


I have looked at the sets of spindles that I have and noticed that two of the five have one round groove in the middle of each bushing at the greasing location and the others have the typical engine rod and main bearing rotation. The new one in a 15 year old box from Bratton's has the regular rotation.


Has anyone noticed the difference in the grooves in the bushings on any old work that you have done? I am inclined to do whatever work on these parts myself to avoid trying any of the machine shops here.


There is a lot of good information in the old discussions here. I have not opened up the regular information Model A books yet.


Thanks,
Vic
 
I have the reamer and the 0.0015 to 0.002 sounds about right. In real life it amounts to "not much movement" as in "barely perceptable to the naked eye.

That is the pin. Shaking the wheel/tire will give you lever-arm and magnify the free motion.

Check first as in inserting the bronze bushings. The bushings may not be far undersize where you might use a brake cylinder hone/electric drill to open them up a little bit. You want to be careful in your use of the hone though as the two bearings have to be "collinear" (i.e. in centerline alignment) which the hone MIGHT keep but a reamer does much better.

As a late teen I used a dowel wrapped with sandpaper to achieve collinearity cheap and with EXTENSIVE SANDING was able to open it up.

Reamers do work much better. Try to avoid "expansion reamers" as they tend to chatter in bronze unless they have a full pilot. Maybe even then.

You may find a better buy on Ebay. A straight hand reamer WILL work, but keeping that collinearity can be a challenge. Right now there is a 13/16 hand "bridge reamer" on ebay which might do in a pinch for small money. The taper of a bridge reamer CAN be used in lieu of a pilot.

Joe K
 
The bushings with the circular groove through the center were commonly used in the lower spindle boss where it was not necessary for grease to flow anywhere else. The spiral groove in the top bushing will lube the king pin bushing and travel further to lube the king pin bearing as well.
 
The bottom bushing has the circular groove.
The top has oil groove from fitting to thrust bearing then the grease travels around to the going down into the bushing.
The modern replacement doesn’t have provisions for direct greasing of the thrust bearing.
Take it to a shop and have them honed. — the first time I used the driver/reamer tool they were too tight to begin with then soon became loose.
 

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Thanks to Joe K and Kurt in NJ for providing this information. I will check out all the Spindle Arms that I have not cleaned up to be sure what I have. I will try to reuse what parts I have that will meet the required dimensions/functions. If I need to put in new bushings, I will proceed in that way. It will be interesting to pull the drivers side and put in a rebuilt double ball steering arm to get the required 1.00 inch ball diameter.


Vic
 
By shopping "intelligently" I have found some good deals on Model A Kingpins on Ebay.
You can usually tell when a kingpin is worn - I've chosen only those that advertise NOS or "lightly worn" (as long as they don't show it.)

A spindle bolt set (Snyder's) currently lists as $150. I've bought a pair of unworn or NOS king pins on Ebay for $26. Of course I'll have to come up with bushings, bearings (and washers), and retainer wedge bolt, but these should not exceed another $26.

Its a matter of keeping your eye out. After a while you can tell who the sellers are who want to "move" stuff - and the sellers who would rather hold onto it.

Joe K
 
The king pin bushing reamer is 0.814" Diameter. A quality line reamed pair of holes should be 0.815" or less in diameter.
 
some reamers have trouble with the oil groove and it induces chatter, the high spots wear quickly.
Honing makes a better surface
 
Hello, I used the reamer from Snyders and it worked good, main thing is that both bushings are on the same center line the reamer is over a foot long to accomplish this . Honing would give a better finish but personally I like to do things myself.
 
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