Best place to get kingpin rebuild parts?

[thecarman]

I have never had the kingpin caps off on my D60, so while I have my truck a little taken apart, I thought I should replace the kingpin springs and bushings. Where is the best place to get these parts? Will a local auto parts store carry them, and are there any different brands (difference in quality)?

The reason I want to do this is that I have a random death wobble that has happened to me 2-3 times in 4,000 miles. I am replacing all the front spring bushings this weekend, and all the steering linkage joints are tight (recently new before I got the truck). I have heard that kingpins can be the cause - so I'd like to replace the parts and shim the spring a little.

The thing that sucks is that I can't re-create the death wobble on a regular basis, so I'm just doing regular maintenance parts for now and hope that fixes it...

Thanks!
Richard

 

[StudNuts]

The DW is probably from the spring, just replace it. Napa should have everything in stock.

 

[drkelly]

http://partsmikeparts.com/60Front.htm

 

[shawn]

Richard, I've bought from Parts Mike and from PORC. Quality is the same, they're both selling Spicer and Timken parts. Prices were pretty close, but if PORC has the part on-hand, they're fast shipping from here.

Your truck is a mid-80s model, right? You might get lucky.... but for the time and effort involved, I'd probably want to rebuild the entire KP assembly while I had it apart.

Shimming or replacing the spring and nylon cone is a quick job. You can practically do it with the tire still on... but I've found that most of these axles are ~20yrs old at least, and the bottom bearing is usually in sad shape. I've had one that was completely destroyed, missing, done, and all of the others have been dry and pitted.

If you want a quick fix, shim the spring and see how smoothly the knuckle rolls back and forth. If it feels a little rough, you can always order the parts and do the job another day.

 

[wbcarver]

We have those same kits - Slightly cheaper.
PM me for a price.

We also carry the individual parts, so you can replace just the parts you really need.

Not meaning to hijack the thread, but we are also working with our supplier to put together some custom kits. ANd can use some input.

I know you don't always need, or want to replace everything. And the reverse - there are a few parts that don't come in the normal kit.

For example, the upper king pin is a bear to get out sometimes, and I know a lot of people don't bother to replace it if the original is in good shape.
Or the lower king pin doesn't come in the basic kit, but sometimes you need one.

So we are trying to see what people really want in a kit.
If a few of you tell me what you would like to see in your ideal kit, we will take the info and build a custom kit.
These kits would even save you a few more dollars over the existing complete kits.

If it makes sense to do it, we might even build "major" and "minor" kits.

Thanks

 

[thecarman]

Thanks all for the info!

Shawn - my truck is a 79, so it's pretty old. I can see that the caps have been off at some point (they have RTV sealing them), but I can't guess at the condition of the parts. I'll probably check the upper joint and shim it or replace the spring for now, and then dig deeper when I have more time.

How hard is it to totally rebuild the upper and lower? Is it just un-bolting the caps on top and bottom to get to the parts inside? I have never had a kingpin apart.

Bill C - will send you a PM.

 

[shawn]

It's not much different than doing ball joints, if you've ever done that. Time-wise, maybe a day's job. If you have to remove the upper kingpin, that could add time. If you're quick and use power tools, half a day.

Remove the hubs and spindles. Then remove the four bolts top and bottom holding the upper and lower kingpins together. The top pops apart, more or less. If you have a steering arm on either side, they might take a bit of encouragement with a hammer to slide off their studs.

The bottom kingpin is a bit tougher. It's basically a flat plate (what you see looking at the bottom of the knuckle) with a round bar sticking out of the top of it. The round part is a tight fit in the bore of the knuckle. The easiest way I've found to get these loose is to spin them. Whack on alternate corners of the plate until the kingpin backs out of the knuckle. Just be careful not to damage it so much that you can't reuse it.

Once that's done, all that's left is to knock the bearing race out of the axle yoke, press in a new one, and put it all back together. Oh, and replace the upper kingpin if you find that's necessary. I've never had to replace one. I had one that was a little pitted, but I hit it with some emory cloth and ran it. It rides on that nylon cone, and the whole thing should be full of grease, so it's somewhat tolerant of a poor finish.

The D60 bible has some good pictures, too.

http://www.pirate4x4.com/tech/billavista/60_front