King Pin differences

[Kevin in NJ]

You should never ream the bushings.

The reamer leaves wavy surface that feels tight. When put in the car and used the high spots wear quickly giving you a slight amount of play.

Properly honed the bushings will be very round and in line. They should be snug such that the pin needs to be twisted through the bushings some. If the pin drops though then they are too loose. Keep in mind the shop should not charge as much as it would cost you to buy the reamer.

[bbrocksr]

Originally Posted by Kevin in NJ

You should never ream the bushings.

The reamer leaves wavy surface that feels tight. When put in the car and used the high spots wear quickly giving you a slight amount of play.

Properly honed the bushings will be very round and in line. They should be snug such that the pin needs to be twisted through the bushings some. If the pin drops though then they are too loose. Keep in mind the shop should not charge as much as it would cost you to buy the reamer.

Kevin, You say you should never ream the bushings,Thats how these cars were built at the factories and they lasted a long time when lubricated properly and the factory manuals specify reaming when replacing bushings.
Are the engineers that built these cars wrong?
Bill

[William Kelchner]

How would I check to condition of my king pins? Thanks

[VWJoe]

Originally Posted by William Kelchner

How would I check to condition of my king pins? Thanks

Bill, lift the front of the car up with a floor jack. Grab the wheel @ 12:00 o'clock and 6:00 o'clock and shake the wheel in & out to detect play in either the king pin bushings or the axle itself. Do this before greasing the bushings as grease will temporaly take the play out of worn bushing.

Joe,,,

[William Kelchner]

Thanks VW - I'll try that tonight after I get home. You must be up early getting your 10 mile run in....

[James Rogers]

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Originally Posted by bbrocksr

Kevin, You say you should never ream the bushings,Thats how these cars were built at the factories and they lasted a long time when lubricated properly and the factory manuals specify reaming when replacing bushings.
Are the engineers that built these cars wrong?
Bill

Yes, that's why we do it differently in today's world. Engineers of today have found ways of doing all these processes with more precision. As for just doing one journal with the crank scraper, do you really think they were used just for that? Many cranks were done complete with these tools because that was what they could afford. Removing and grinding a crank would cost maybe, 20$ but this could be done for 5$ so guess what the farmer or poor worker did where money was scarce.

[jan bogert]

right now i have my king pins out on my '31 coupe. needed bushings. play in them. i took mine to my local machine shop. $35.00 a spindle. press out old install new bushings, and hone with long hone top and bottom together. got the kit from Snyders. also got the tie-rod kit. i thought if one is bad so's the other or it will be soon. JAN.

[Kevin in NJ]

Originally Posted by bbrocksr

Kevin, You say you should never ream the bushings,Thats how these cars were built at the factories and they lasted a long time when lubricated properly and the factory manuals specify reaming when replacing bushings.
Are the engineers that built these cars wrong?
Bill

Which factory manuals and where did you read they used reamers?

I am not saying they did not use the reamer in the factory. Early manuals would have you use a reamer because the Sunnen hone type device was not very common.

As mentioned a reamer can do the job. The factory is likely to have used a reamer on a fancy machine that reamed and burnished to size. Every thing was held tight and the reamer was not allowed to move so it could not chatter. As pointed out the right type of reamer would do a very good job, but they are more expensive. The factory could have also had a precision cutter and a jig and then burnished them. I do not know what they have done so if someone has the factory info please tell me where I can read about it too.

SO comparing what the factory did to what we can do in our shops is not a very good comparison.

We can get down to some very special distinctions in the various reamers. Number of flutes, shape of flutes, how much the various shapes will be affected by the grease groove and such. We would get way off the track.

For this discussion we need to focus on what would be accessible to the general population. Certain realities.

The average guy has two choices.

A reamer or machinist with a (hopefully) precision tool.

The reamers come in all sorts of designs. If you get a used one from a flea market who know what you are really getting. Straight flutes and enough lead to hopefully get the pair of bushings lined up. I have several of those laying around. Brattton's sells a spiral fluted unit for only $139 for 2012. It is custom made in Canada. I have not heard how good it works.

Now you can also spend about $40 to pay an experienced guy to hone the bushings to size. I do not know about costs my brother has two Sunnen hones so I just hand them to him. They should be round and inline when done. Can he screw them up, sure. The reamer in in-experinced hands can mess up a lot too.

So for the average guy the best value is paying someone with a hone. Those with access to a reamer go ahead and use it. In either case, check your work.

Short of knowing for sure the type of reamer and the experience of the guy doing the reaming, I would always have to push someone to have their bushings honed.