almost frozen kingpin?

[ryans51]

I just got a set of I-beams ad spindles from a 77 with disc brakes to swap into my '68. Trouble is I just found out that the zerk fitting on the bottom passenger side bushing hasn't been greased in....well a while. This is due to an absence of zerk at that particular fitting.

So now, I've got to try to get the thing to move again. I can get it to move by smacking it with a large rubber mallet, but can't budge it by hand.

Am I going to have to get the kingpin replaced, or is there hope for me to rehabilitate the joint. Will it loosen with use and lots of grease? Should I try to use solvents?

I can't spend much more on this swap since I'm already getting scowled at by my fiance', but will do what I have to do to get it back on the road.

Thanks for the help,
Ryan

[Wes]

I would try solvents at first may be even warm it up with a heat gun to get old nasty grease to start moving. Keep moving spindle till its free then fresh grease. I would defiantly inspect the King pins for wear you may still need to replace the king pins.

[390Nut]

Without a zerk fitting on the bottom, it's very likely got a large amount of rust in there. Even getting it broken free and greased well, it's likely you'll only get a few thousand miles out of the king pin before it's worn down beyond safe use.

Just my

[Banjo]

Ryan, you can read my post just down from yours about my kingpin fight, it's only a post or two below, but here is what I found (to save you some cussing).....get an adjustable wrench and remove the bottom hex shaped "cap" that the zeirdt fitting screw into and you'll probably find the old grease has solidified. Scrape it all out (I used a nail and carb cleaner), and while you have cap off, clean out inside of zeirdt fitting with nail too (and carb cleaner) and hook it up to your grease gun while it's off vehicle (you can hold it and do that, but might need a helper) and shoot grease while it's off to verify grease fitting works. Reassy and grease until grease comes out joint just above. both top and bottom zeirdt fittings (if they're working and grease isn't solidified) should start to ooze grease from where spindle joints beam you'll see the old grease squeezing out chased by fresh grease, Banjo.

[ryans51]

Banjo,

Was your spindle frozen in place? I read through the post, and did go through to try to clean up the old grease at both the top and bottom zerk fittings there. I also tried to heat up the bushing area to melt out the old grease.

The spindle is still very stiff. Wondering if I don't have corosion on the bottom portion of the kingpin due to the actual zerk fitting being gone. That would have allowed water and such to get in there.

I will try a little bit longer to free it up, but have provisions coming already to replace the kingpin if necessary.

Is removing the kingpin something that I can do myself?
Most of the service places around here want to charge me about $70 to remove it, and then I've got to spend more to get the new one installed.

Thanks for the help,

Ryan

[ryans51]

Banjo,
Thanks for the response. I went out and tried to get it to move one last time before I started to disassemble. Much to my dismay, it yielded, and I am now able to move it reasonably easy by hand.

The trick to heat and grease at the same time worked great. That has saved me close to $200, from not being forced to replace.

Just wanted to say thanks for sharing your experience.

Ryan

[jzjames]

I remember reading a post on the 'other site' (before I got removed), of a guy who took out the zerk fittings, and rigged up a hose to inject some kerosine into the kingpin area. Freed it up that way.

[Banjo]

That's a dang good idea. You can do alot with a $20 pressurized poison sprayer from your garden. You could either remove top cap and just spray and let soak and keep doing every so often or I guess you could find a fitting same size at zeirdt fitting thread and thread a fitting in and clamp a rubber hose to that or something and use the handpump pressurized sprayer for that.
A buddy was telling me when I was talking about my odd brake problem (locking up) about blowing brake fluid out to clean lines with a pressurized garden sprayer before he had compressor access. If you knew for a fact you had metal inside, propane over and over and soaking would be good. I noticed when I finally got cap off mine they had nylon inserts, but I'd only used propane with cap and zeirdt fitting still in place, so nylon was undamaged.

[72stepside]

I had the same problem and came up with the same solution as Banjo. Mine was so bad I had to lock the axle in a vise and put a cheater pipe (carefully) over the spindle and work it (I think it worked me) back and forth while my father put pressure on the zerk fitting with the grease gun.

Got it all loosened up. Camber adjustment looked all out of whack after a few days because the king pins were worn. If you have it all out, replace them. Just my

[Banjo]

Yeah, I'm with Chris (even though he is an Auburn fan....grrrrrr), while it's out, even if you gotta wait till money materializes, do replace. Fightinng mine while in truck, just trying to get it going and driving around some till it gets cooler and more fun to rob i-beams.

[ryans51]

Just a qick follow up...

I've finally got the king pin moving fairly easy. Took a lot of working it back and forth with a rubber hammer at first, and then by hand once it loosened up a bit. The other thing that I found to work fairly well was motorcycle chain lube. Seems to try to penetrate in decently and to disolve the old grease a bit.

I've Just gotten all the steering linkages put back together, and hope to have the brak lines set and bled by tomorrow. Then I should be able to take her for a short spin down the road and see if the loosening worked as well as I think it did.

[jzjames]

Chain lube is great stuff. I use it on alot of stuff. It wont evaporate like WD40.