Technical Just thought I'd rant about kingpin bushings...

I realize we are talking about Ford kingpins, but I just got some new kingpins from Speedway for my 50's Chevy spindles. Regular pins and press in bushings...no weird street rod stuff.
I pulled them out of the box and the instructions say that the bushings are already sized to the kingpins and can be easily pressed into clean spindle bores without distortion and no additional honing etc required!
no muss...no fuss. Awesome!!!

Now the obvious question. WHY can't they do the same for Ford kingpin kits?

 

Your machine shop is quoting you $130-180 because they probably have plenty of work and don't want to dick around with them for a $75 job. They're probably so busy they don't want to mess with it, so you get highballed for a petty job.
Get with a local rodder and borrow their reamer. Buy a reamer and do them yourself (it's "traditional"). Other option would be to see what a local rod shop would charge...

 

Just buy a standard fixed reamer and build a cone to align it with the other bushing. Easy to do and only out $25 bucks or so.

 

Hell I get 30 a piece and I'm in ny. Blasted clean and honed to size.I have every king pin mandrel for a sunnen hone known to man.
They sit and have birthdays between uses but I had then so long I just put them with the rest of the tooling I have.
Send them to me with a return tag and they will go out the same day they arrive.
I hate spam but crap they are real proud of there work in Connecticut I guess.
Pm me if your interested.

 

Chevy king pins are completely differant than Fords. I believe Chevy's are full floating.

Reaming king pins are not going to give you the same lasting smooth finish that a proper hone will. Reaming will work but wont stay as tight longer. But it will surely work OK.

 

Call Billings Machine in Glastonbury. Ask for Kent. He did an axle for me a few years ago.

 

The shops are definitely busy and their shop rates maybe $100/hour or more. Then you have to take a highly experienced person off a production job to do a one-time side job and they're probably not set up to work on car parts. So there is a set up and learning curve on their end.

 

Can I use the reaming tools mentioned here to take the kingpin bore on my axle considerably oversize? I have 1984 F250 spindles that I am going to fit to my 1936 Model 51 axle. Sizing the bore to the larger late-model kingpin. I was going to drop it off at a local machine chop unless the tools mentioned will handle the job

 

use the old king pins to make a reamer. file or cut some diagonal grooves in the old kingpin. grind a taper on one end, clamp a visegrips on the other end and go to it. I have also used a brake cylinder hone with good results.don't overthink it!

 

OK, here are picts. of my two tools in action. It's been a while, but the old style reamer sits in the bottom bushing. How is that not keeping them aligned?

The adjustable one has the cone to sit in the bottom bushing. It also came with a steel rod sized at exactly .814. You chuck it up in a drill and run it with some oil. The guy who sold me the reamer told me to run it through the bushings after reaming them to give them a finish hone. There is no grit or abrasion on the rod, so I'm not sure if that is accurate, but seems to make sense to me.

I think as others have posted, we may be overthinking this.

 

Any more thoughts on this....

 

As an machinist working in aviation a bunch of what has been posted is incorrect. Reaming done properly will give you a much tighter king pin bushing than a hone. The ream gives you a straight true hole. The hone gives you a hole that is bell mouthed on both ends.

A proper ream is adjustable and is done in small increments to "scrape" the bushing to size and directly in line with the opposite hole.

I have done a couple of sets of king pins, easy job. But it takes time most shops don't want to bother with. The reason they hone them is because it is quick.

 

Not trying to start a shitstorm here,God knows I have elsewhere. But is this statement about bell mouthing a result you found first hand honining parts yourself or parts you have received from a honing shop.
My background in honing is a little more than most,myself I own a vertical ( ck-10) and a horizontal (mb1800) auto stroke.
The shop next door is a honing only primarily doing aviation, 4 cv616 and 10 mb1600 and 1800.
I learned a great deal from my neighbor helping them when I am slow just to learn a bit.
To put it simply honing is feel thing and if you don't have a feel for it it will never be right.
Bell mouthing is a result of not enough over stroke causing stone ware to get a shape or too much over stroke allowing the part to shift and bell mouth the ends.
The wrong stone selection will cause glazing and heat to transfer into the part instead of cutting material, barreling and oblique shapes are created,to see the problem takes a few hours behind the machine to understand it fully.
Mill,ream grinders and lathes you dial a cut make a pass and calculate deflection and adjust.
Honing is a seat of the pants to figure out what the material does then you repeat.
If done correctly honing is as straight if not straighter than any form of ream with a superior finish every time.
Verry easy to achieve a tolerance in a 6 inch long 3 in dia hard chromed landing gear part within .0001.
never have I found it faster than a reem,it's a slow process.
Out of ten people that try for a job at the honing shop maybe one will be worth their salt.
Not a easy process to do right.

 

I've got a lead on a shop that will do both spindles for $60. As soon as I press in the new bushings I'll drop over. Was in a hurry last weekend and my mind was elsewhere. Pressed one in crooked and f'd it up. Had to order another few from Mac's. That'll teach me to rush things.

 

How about using the needle bearings instead of bushings. Speedway sells this option.

 

Mr Terharr you are correct, if you have the right equipment a hone is superior. Engine shop rod end hones are not designed to do this job. This is where the bellmouth comes from.

 

The Sunnen hone used for rod ends is also used outside of automotive. The difference is the color. Automotive = red, industrial = green. The mandrels are interchangeable. So the honing machine is not the difference, the mandrels are. A good auto machine shop will have long mandrels and can do a superior job of finishing the king pin bores.

 

I wanna rant too. I bought spindles that were already fitted with king pins. As I was chasing a shimmy I found one of my kingpins loose after only a few thousand miles. So I bought a kit since I have a reamer. I had a hell of a time getting that bushing out. What I found was whoever made that spindle drilled it out to big and had put a bunch of weld in there then drilled it again. Worked for a bit I guess. Now I will only buy bare spindles


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Dick is out of business, shops closed.

 

Chadwick Trefethan sells the correct reamer to do this job. It's not a cheap tool by any means but offers a quality centered ream and no need to hone if done right. I've done a few sets and very pleased with the results.