Just out of curiosity how do you know when your king pins need replacing?

 

Mine had the much dreaded "Death Wobble".

 

my tires were angled out on the bottom alot.

 

You may also hear them pop when you hit a bump or turn. Just get new springs and cone bushing from Randy's Ring & Pinion. Its cheep and will make it drive a lot better. Did on a few I worked on.

 

your tires will toe out at the bottom, and get un-even wear. they are not fun to change. tourqe to 600lbs.

Bob

 

As said the tires will toe out at the bottom I bought complete rebuild kits 1 per side from Tellico 4x4 King Pin Kit for $50 there is a great rebuild article on Pirate King Pin Rebuild I had one bad Pin but the article says if there not scorn you don't need to swap them just the bushings which is good as there in at 600 ft lbs. I made a 1' long allen key from 7/8" hex stock to remove them.

 

Thanks for the good info guys

 

every kit I can find lists as a complete rebuild minus the bottom caps, are these reuseable? or a seperate order? anyone know?

 

There are separate order as they are reusable as long as there is no damage I didn't need them but the local driveline shop quoted at $45 each. I'm sure they can be had online as well.

 

is there any way to tell if they are damaged while still on the truck?

 

Unfortunately not

 

In this write up Pirate 4x4 they heat the king pin up. I don't think this is the way to go about this.... I think this would expand the kingpin size making it tougher to get out..... I would suggest putting a can of WD40 in the icebox. Then heat the item that the kingpin threads into. When it is hot the king pin will have absorbed some of this heat, quench the kingpin with the WD40 from the fridge...... This has worked great for me... I think the 7/8 hex stock wrench was an ingenious idea!