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Thu Apr 26, 2012 6:03 pm

well it seems i have some slop in my kingpins on my drop spindles in my bus. what I'm wondering is if its easy enough for me to do, just order new kingpins and rebuild them myself or should I send them out to someone either local or not to have them rebuilt if its something that you need some bigger shop tools to do so?

here is a vidoe of the movement i took earlier, it moves right above the bottom link pin. it looks like the king pin to me. what do you think?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=fJ3xboAM18s

Thu Apr 26, 2012 6:07 pm

asesapie wrote:

here is a vidoe of the movement i took earlier, it moves right above the bottom link pin. it looks like the king pin to me. what do you think?

holy crap, is anything adjusted properly on that front end? i didn't see anything that was not moving. frightening. looks like excessive wheel bearing play, doesn't look like the link pins are cinched up. and yes, that is excessive king pin play and will need to be completely disassembled to be repaired.

Thu Apr 26, 2012 6:22 pm

you can remove the spindle's and bring them to a local automotive machine shop they will press in the bushing's and ream them for proper size.

Thu Apr 26, 2012 6:24 pm

I looked around Spokane, wanting to patronize the locals first, and couldn't find anything. Then I sent mine off to Aaron at Widefive.net and couldn't be happier with the workmanship, turnaround time, and price. Both will fit inside of a flat rate USPS box if you finagle them just right. And remember, if it fits, it ships.

Mort

Thu Apr 26, 2012 7:06 pm

Greg aka campingbox rebuilds them also he does great work and is in olympia wa.

Thu Apr 26, 2012 7:09 pm

Well I know the wheel bearings are adjusted properly as I just did that yesterday. But that's when I noticed the movement in the king pins. And I didn't really notice anything moving too much except for the king pin movin I thought that both the link pins were mounted solid.

Thu Apr 26, 2012 7:22 pm

Mort - Thanks for the kind words.

asesapie - Let me know if I can help. I've rebuilt lots of other people's dropped spindles. If you had them flipped, contact the company that did the work. They may be able/willing to work with you.

Don't be surprised if that lower king pin is wasted or the upper one is pounded at the link pin surface. That's pretty nasty looking under there.

Thu Apr 26, 2012 7:38 pm

joe56vw wrote: Greg aka campingbox rebuilds them also he does great work and is in olympia wa.

Thanks Joe.

If I can help let me know. I will be at the Springmeet event this weekend and can deliver spindles and/or pick up cores there.

If the wheel bearing is properly adjusted you might want to take a closer look at the bearing itself and make sure the races are not spun in the drums. I would also take a close look at those linkpins. They clearly are either not adjusted properly or are in poor shape.

Thu Apr 26, 2012 8:00 pm

Thanks Aaron I will keep you in mind. Yeah I had a local buddy flip them for me about 3 years ago do I dont know if he just flipped them and called it good or what? But anyway Greg I might send them over with a buddy that's going to spring meet if my other friend here doesn't have time to rebuild them for me. I'll let you know. Thanks for the responses guys I kinda figured these things needed to be fixed up they do look real bad with all that moving around.

Side note: where is the best place to get the new king pin and link pin kits? Might as well do them all since they will be off anyway. Or if Greg or Aaron could shoot me a price to rebuild?

Mon Apr 30, 2012 6:25 pm

Dan's king and linkpins are a little rough.

I think these kingpins are a bit too messed up to be cut on a lathe, but they can be reground with decent results. They will never be perfect again though.

On top of worn kingpins and worn kingpin bushings, these spindles were not gusseted, have no lower phenolic bushings, no lower grease seal, the upper kingpin was not clearanced to clear the torsion arm, which caused binding, the retaining pin was hammered in place because the kingpin groove was not aligned properly, and the tierod eye was enlarged with a drill bit to accept a stock bus tierod end, which fits loose in the hole.

Mon Apr 30, 2012 9:41 pm

I think the whole gusseting thing is debatable. Not everyone gussets where they grind. I know I didn't. I only ground out what absolutely needed to. It took a while with fitting.

But the rest sounds like his buddy did a great job. Lol. How do you plan on fixing the drilled out tie rod hole?

Mon Apr 30, 2012 11:30 pm

A tappered reamer and enlarge it to a bay window tie rod end?

Tue May 01, 2012 12:19 am

hubCapT wrote: A tappered reamer and enlarge it to a bay window tie rod end?

Absolutely. That will make them perfect again.