King pin repair question
 

Hello,

There is play in the right front wheel, so I bought a king pin repair kit and have been reading up on how to replace it. I have three questions:

1. Why can I not support the lower a-arm (maybe just leave the shock in place) and remove the entire king-pin assembly (spindle) to be worked on?

2. The instructiuons I found say the king pin bushings need to be reamed to size. The bushings I got in the kit fit fine over the pin in the kit. Are thy already sized, or once they are pressed in place the ID gets smaller?

3. Are there rubber bushings at the inner lower a-arm pivot? If so Pelican does not sell them.

Thanks,

What kind of car are you working on?

1.
If the bushings are in the spindle side, what you want to do will work.

2.
The bushings will shrink when pressed into the bore. They need to be sized to the pin. This is a similar operation as engine connecting rod bushings. Any automotive machine shop can preform this function for a small fee. ( Let them press the bushings in also. )

Hi,

The car in my sig line: 1972 280SEL 4.5

Thanks, that will be a lot simpler than removing the spring. I have a good machine shop, they are just reallllly slow.

I didn't know that MB used them so far along. King pins started to go away in American cars in the late 50's, VW quit using them in 68 or so.

I don't have any service info for the 108 but the 111 manual shows a rubber bushing on both ends of the lower A-arm. However it seems as if the outer bushing, the one attached to the steering spindle/knuckle, would 'rotate' as the car moves. The one on the inner end, that bolts to the car side of this deal, is more of an insulation bushing since there appears to be no way for it to move.

This inner bushing and it's housing can be adjusted for alignment, but then it is bolted down tight.

You will need the kingpin bushings installed and sized by a machine shop. Most likely they will not know what they are doing and mess them up so give very specific instructions. They ruined my first set. You could probably do the job without removing the a arms but it would give you a chance to clean things up and replace the pivot seals. There are seals at both ends of the upper and lower pivots. They are a simple rubber sleeve. I got them at the dealer-they are not too expensive. Removing the springs is a little scary so be prepared. I had visions of a trip to the ER while doing it. If I did it again I would rig some kind of safety cable to hold the springs in if the jack slipped. Are you replacing the upper and lower link pins as well as the king pins? Most of my play was in the link pins not the actual King pins.

Did you go to an automotive machine shop or a general machine shop?

Any real automotive machine shop will be familiar with the process as it is the same as installing / sizing connecting rod pin bushings.

I went to an automotive machine shop. They are more into production work(I did not use them again)

A lot of kingpin info over at Pagoda SL Group

> Are you replacing the upper and lower link pins as well as the king pins?

I did not think of those until someone PM'd me. I will have to check where the actual play is, and if it's the link pin, then I will have to replace it. Unfortunately I did not find it listed on the Pelican web store.