tech week: king pin jig

My brother "lonestarmopar" is getting his 52 chevy ready for the round up and his front suspension is first on the list. Thanks to "hellfire" we have a donated complete front suspension since we installed a mustang 2 in his chevy. Thanks again hellfire. Everything is going so smooth. My boss "ntxcustoms" gave rick a rundown on how to use the media blaster and let him blast the whole lot. He got everything done without much help, until he got to the kingpins. He has been beating on one for a week with no luck. So we decided to build a "jig" for lack of a better term. After work today I got a scrap piece of 1/4 inch plate and got to work.

I started with two stips of 10x2 and located the holes.




after drilling the holes I scavenged some control arm bolts that have the splines to keep them locked into place. After hammering in the studs I bolted them to the upright.



I had to trim one side for clearance.


Then I used my trusty magnet and square and got an "eyeball" square on it. This isnt going to the moon, I just want to have close to square for those stubborn ones that wont come out so if it has to see the press it wont walk under pressure.



Satisfied with my angle I tacked it together. Then I cut some supports and welded it together. I tacked it on both sides so it wouldnt move then welded the outsides solid.



I got excited and forgot to cut an access hole in my lower plate before I welded it all together, but luckily we have a plasma at work and that made it easy to fix. Now it was time for the press.



And there you have it! A tool that my brother can keep as long as he has the car and never have to call for my help on those pesky king pins again!! It took me a little over an hour to build this and thanks to all the scrap I tend to hang on to it cost only a little time and effort. The good thing about this is it is perfect for hammering out the kingpins on a bench or the ground, but if they're stuck you can take it to the press and not have to worry about stuff flying because of all the crap youve got stacked up to try and keep it level!

 

Thanks bro...And Tyler too for letting me get my blast on! Thats a top notch setup youve got, quick and clean. I dont think you'll ever convince me to do anything by hand again!

 

Nicely done. Thanks for sharing.

 

Another good tech week entry. Amazing how the simplest ideas are the best. Nice work. I still hope I win though

 

That's gotta be easier than heating up the upright with a torch

 

Nice!!

 

The good thing is squirrel, if you do have to heat it with the torch you can do it in the press to make it that much easier. If I had time most of my day would be spent building tools to make my job easier!! Lots of good stuff for tech week this time, Im just glad I could share. And yea kevinsrodshop, I could use a thousand baileigh bucks for tools I dont have to build!!

 

I had some time after work so I got to pressin the stuck pain in the arse kingpin with a little help from my friend the blue wrench. In less than 2 minutes that stuck ass kingpin popped and fell right out. I'll end up putting another 1/4 plate on the bottom of the jig just for support under press pressures, but it didnt flex much at all. All you guys thinking of going mustang two this jig will save you about $900 right off the top!