June 26, 2004
I have been working on the front suspension and steering over the past couple weeks when I could find the time. One item to note here is that the tie-rod ends I received are updated to be stronger and require some modification to the original steering knuckles. Although the procedures for modifying the steering parts and king-pin replacement are time consuming, it is not a difficult process. From my reading, it is also expected that the removal of the driver's side king-pin can be a bear. Using the tech portion of the Brother's Trucks website, I created this Word document that you may find helpful... After reading through the steps in the above document, I was not surprised when I encountered the exact scenario as described.
The first thing I did was to remove all the steering pieces, tie-rod, and front axle. Afterwards, I took off the front leaf springs. At this point, I was able to push out the old bushings and install new ones and new leaf springs on the front. It took me a little longer to unfreeze the driver's side stationary pin, but all-in-all, this was a text book install.
The next step was the king-pins. I'm of the opinion that this was easier for me since I had the entire axle separated from the vehicle. I had the passenger side king-pin out in about 20 minutes. It took some pounding, but no other tricks. The driver's side king-pin demanded the sacrifice of 3 brass punches, a lot of heat, and 4 hours of pounding with a small sledge-hammer. A little tip for you guys out there is to find something other than your hand to hold the punch - I used some large vice-grip pliers and this worked nicely.
After the king-pins were gone, it made sense to tackle the removal of the old bushings in the spindles. A little tip I picked up was to use an old bushing as a "punch" to get the others out. With this thought in mind, I figured it might be a little difficult to get that first bushing out, but the rest would be cake. As with all things in life, this did not go as planned... I had picked the most stubborn bushing to get out first. After about an hour of hammering my finger, knuckles and a small punch, I got no where. I decided to try one of the other bushings and got it out in about 5 minutes. Using it as a guide, I knocked out 2 more in quick fashion and then went back to the original. It was stubborn and took a while longer, but I got it out.
Lastly in this tear-down project, came the removal of the old pressed-in ball joints that were in the steering knuckles. If I had been looking at these parts without the fore-knowledge that they were inserted, I would have swore that they were "built in" to the knuckles. Because I couldn't discern where the ball ended and the sleeve began, I decided to not waste my time by hammering. I got out the old trusty drill and started hollowing out the ball joint. After getting a pretty good chunk out of the middle, I got the hammer and punch and the little devils came out after a couple of good whacks.
Next, I need to cleanup the parts and repaint before I start the reassembly. My only concern is that the new king-pin bushings fit properly in the spindles. If they don't fit snugly, then I'll have to find some replacements and I don't want to have to do that!
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