A few weeks ago I tackled the kingpin and outer upper pivot pin looseness I had. After advice from Rob (Ardiesse) as a temporary fix, I loosened the rh pivot pin locknut and backed off the bolt a quarter turn - and it worked!
Unfortunately, I now could feel a slight wobble in the kingpin
I then moved to the lh kingpin. Again from Rob, I cleaned the area, checked the cotter pin locknut was tight and gave the pin a couple of good whacks with a 1/4” pin punch and hammer
No budging here
I removed the knuckles and decided to bite the bullet and bought a kingpin set and outer pivot pin set for both sides. Also got a reamer out on special.
Here’s the setup I used and the axles stands under the lower control arms.
Removing the knuckles and kingpins wasn’t too bad, though I had to grind a slice in one of the grease caps to get it out as the knuckle had been centre popped to hold the cap in.
I also got a seal set and removed the lower pins and bushings. Had to use a Nasco extra long spanner for this - they were a bit tighter than the ~100ft/lbs of torque mentioned in the manual.
After a good clean ......
... I got to the reaming stage. I didn’t bother replacing the bushes as they appeared in good nick and tight, and I’d have to ream the new ones anyway.
I didn’t have a piloted reamer, so took it slow and steady. I don’t know how many times I screwed that reamer up and down, but it was at least a squillion times, adjusting a tiny bit each time.
I used a micrometer until I got close, but got the final fit by “feel”. I couldn’t turn the knuckle by holding the assembly in both hands, but it was firm when in the vice and felt fine on the car when reinstalled.
A tolerance of <0.004” was stated in the manual for the gap between the bearing and knuckle. The shims in the kit were 0.008” and put me within tolerance on one of the knuckles, though when I did the other side, these were too thick so I made one from some brass shim material I have.
The cotter pin didn’t go in as far as the original and I put this down to the 0.010” oversized kingpins used.
Cleaned and fit the grease nipples
Grease in the top and bottom and caps fitted. I had to do a bit of pencil grinding to remove the burrs left by the centre popping
At one stage after I’d reamed the bushes and fit the kingpin, I thought I’d stuffed up as the pin alignment was out compared to the knuckle. It was late at night and, in a bit of a panic, I sent Blacky at EK Mart an sos for a spare knuckle. He replied the following day (great service at this joint) saying he had one, but in the meantime I had a rethink and measured up, realising it was supposed to be on the piss - knobhead!
Next was installing the new upper outer pivot kits .....
The last picture above shows the knuckle fitted left of centre a fair bit, which doesn’t look right but that’s how it was when I got it so I put it back the same. It’s also where it “naturally” wanted to be without forcing it towards the centre. Any thoughts on this?? Hopefully the wheel alignment process will sort all that out.
Then cleaning and refitting the original outer lowers and new seals.
Everything torqued as per the manual
That’s it for now.
Oh, went for a bit of a fish at Jurien Bay with some workmates for a few days just after this. Here’s some shots of the guys and our pickings.
A great time
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I woul dbe - oh well , may as well pull the wishbones off and paint them and the springs - hmm , now the rest of the crossmember is the only bit not done , better yank that too ...... and the next thing you know is the car is a bare shell and theres piles of parts stacked up to be cleaned and painted 