King pin

[m35a2cowner]

I am replacing the king pin bushings on my 35 and I noticed the replacements I got from Memphis do not have a champher in the bushing (grease path) like the original bushings have. I would assume they are the right bushings and with the number of trucks they recondition. Anyone have experience with this? Thanks Also, is there a ring or snap ring that holds the axle seal in the housing?

 

[jwaller]

there is no snap ring. the steering knuckle has a bushing surface that the outer stub axle rides on to retain it in the housing. not like it can go anywhere anyway. I see what you are talking about with those bushings and I don't like them. I think you need that path to hold grease and give it a way to pump down into the assembly once assembled. you could prob do it but it seems lik eit wil be way harder.

 

[FreightTrain]

They are made that way cause you have to fit them to the pins on the axle.You will have to open them up just a smidgen and then Cut the Grease Grooves on a lathe.Not a back yard repair job.What's wrong with your current inserts?They look good.

 

[m35a2cowner]

king pin

The current bushings are worn and the knuckle is loose. The existing bushings appear to be made with the grooves cut in them. On another note I got the axle seal loose. and it appears that it is to big to come out from the outside. Does this mean that I have to install it from the inside?

 

[FreightTrain]

RE: king pin

No,that silver plate is a separate retainer ring.You gotta pull it with a GOOD BIG slide hammer or if your doing both sides just use a long 1" pipe and a Small Sledge.The seal gets knocked into a small ledge inside the actual seal holder.

 

[ken]

Mine didn't have greese grooves eather. They also will need to be Burnished or reamed to the right size. But i bored and cut the grease grooves in my lathe. You might need to go to a machine shop or get a machinist buddy to fix u up. With out the grooves grease will just push out and not get around the bushing/kingpin.

 

[gringeltaube]

More about worn king pins and bushings: http://www.steelsoldiers.com/index....=viewtopic&t=7210&highlight=king+pin+bushings

Front axle inner seal and seal retainer:

 

[FreightTrain]

That is a strange plate.....Mine was flat on the face like M35A2Cowner

 

[m35a2cowner]

Thank you

Dear Freighttrain and gringeltaub (and everyone else who has given me such good advice over the years):

Thank you for giving me back my will to live. I was really dreading having to pull the front axle to reinstall that seal. I sprained my back badly (unable to admit I am getting older) working on this little project and that has slowed me down greatly, but this good news will speed the recovery. Is that metallic disk have any type of retainer or is it just a force fit? Thanks again guys, you really have made my day. As you can see from the link I have been working up the courage to do this for a while. I will probably end up going to a machine shop to see if they can do the grooves. Do you think anyone sells the style with grooves? The ones that are in there look as if they were cut from the factory. Thanks again.

 

[FreightTrain]

RE: Thank you

Just a tight slip fit.I have a chunk of pipe that I kinda found in the bed of my truck after work .I use it to drive both the inner hub seal on the spindle and the retainer ring in with a small sledge.I used a large socket just slightly smaller than the OD of the axle seal to drive into the plate too.Quite easy with the right tools and some redneck ingenuity.Only takes about 10 minutes to knock both plates out,knock the seals out,clean it up,reseat the new seals,and knock hte plates back in place.

 

[JDToumanian]

Is that metallic disk have any type of retainer or is it just a force fit?

On my truck, there was some silicone sealer around the outside of the seal retainer where it contacts the axle housing... I thought it was a good idea to help keep gear oil where it belongs so I put a little bead back on when I reassembled.

Jon

 

[jwaller]

Is that metallic disk have any type of retainer or is it just a force fit?

On my truck, there was some silicone sealer around the outside of the seal retainer where it contacts the axle housing... I thought it was a good idea to help keep gear oil where it belongs so I put a little bead back on when I reassembled.

Jon

Mine too had some rtv on the seal retainer plate. I also resealed it when I did mine but it continues to leak if I park the truck on a slope.

 

[m35a2cowner]

Thanks again

Thanks again guys, back is flaring up again so I will have to take it easy but I can still work on the things that don't require any lifting.

 

[gringeltaube]

Front axle seal retainers

Just reviving an old thread with a Q. still waiting to be answered…. At that time (June 2007) I had posted some pics showing an axle housing with its seal retainer installed/removed and FreightTrain was wondering about the shape of that plate, not having a flat face…well, that was just the old style retainer but without the thrust washer in place and….
… for all of you with older (gasser) Deuces: if you ever plan to replace your worn CV-axle shafts with the later model U-joint axle shafts…. emmmh, don’t do what I did: don't pack everything nicely with grease and stuff them in, expecting they would simply interchange…! I found out today something that the TM's (my books, at least) don’t mention: U-joint shafts are about ¼” larger measured between thrust washers and won’t interchange unless the seal retainers were also swapped out for the new style ones, which are accordingly thinner!
My solution: put the old retainers in the lathe, remove the protruding thrust washer guide and reduce its height or total thickness, from initially 14mm to now 7mm.
BUT… I’m not overly exited about the new arrangement (neither what the factory did!): the old style retainers have a hardened steel ring pressed on as friction surface while on the newer ones the axle directly rubs against the soft face. Also I found that the new ones are more fragile and easily get distorted during removal. IMHO they should at least have made them of high grade steel and surface hardened…!
As a side note: U-joint axles might be stronger, but they do not rotate as smoothly as constant velocity axles do! Not a real problem though, for those who added lock out hubs and only occasionally need AWD!

Attached pics tell the rest… enjoy!


Gerhard

 

[Stretch44875]

Thanks for the info, I was planning to swap axleshafts into the M108, would have thought they just interchange also.

Dennis

 

[jwaller]

FWIW I called around when I did my king pin bushings after getting them from several different surplus guys. all of them were missing the grease paths.

All of the dealers told me that the new bushings did NOT need to be greased. they said they are impregnated with a moly of some sort and didn't need grease ever. I then asked how you would get grease into the CV's bc there is no way to force it past the bushing of this design. I was told to use the 2 vents holes in the knuckle.

 

[gringeltaube]

King pin & bushings

.................
All of the dealers told me that the new bushings did NOT need to be greased. they said they are impregnated with a moly of some sort and didn't need grease ever.
................

That's true if they used what is called graphited bronze...!

The real problem starts when the pins are worn out of round. Usually on our 50year old axles here, I find specially the top pins way beyond wear limits, certainly due to lack of maintenance! And it doesn't take that much wear to find a lot of play at the wheel/tire. (see attached figure and chart for wear limits, from the books)

If I knew what steel and exact procedure was used to remove/replace the whole pins I would try to go that way. Instead, and within limits, I choose to just regrind the surface (pics) to re-obtain its cylindrical shape, always ending with less than 1mm undersize! The trick is to align tool and axle housing & pins
on the same exact geometrical axis, obviously with help of a dial indicator.
The final step is to make new custom fit bushings out of mentioned graphited bronze.
If done right the knuckle will turn stop to stop with no play and no drag and the final result is: as good as - or better - than new!

G.