'41 Buick king pins

[Jon Bartlett]

What's the proceedure for removing the king pins on a '41 Buick Special? The manual shows everything except this (of course). It looks like tapered pins hold the king pin and appear to want to be driven out toward the rear. I smacked it around a little but it looks like it will take quite a bit more pounding and maybe some heat, but I don't want to do either of those until I make sure of how it's done. Thanks for the help.

[danny]

i had a '58 chevy pickup with the straight type axle and i removed the complete axle and took it to a machine shop where they pressed the pins out and replaced the bushings and reassembled it, i think the cost was somewhere around $120 for the shop.

[Jon Bartlett]

Thanks for the info.

[danny]

no problem, i tried to push them out myself but decided this was easier and faster.

[Trader Ray]

I have used plenty of heat and a grease gun, and of course the hammer. I removed some two inch pins from a old 40's something forklift and they were frozen in there a long time. I got them real hot and with safey glasses on shot the grrase to them, they almost feel out. There is usually a side pin that wedges in there to help secure the kink pins in their proper position. While apart, check the brass spacers on top of and under the spindle. good luck.

[danny]

s10, i never tried that way-i removed the little bolts that secured the pins and was not able to make them move so to the machine shop it went-the steering was real hard which prompted the change in the first place. plus i didn't have access to portable fire(smoking wrench) at that time.lol

[Trader Ray]

Those kink pins were so tight and worn, more that half of the pin was just worn off from where the bushing was gone. It had torn the gear box off the frame several times. It was a 1936 Hyster forklift. I had beat on them for ever and the smoke wrench was a second or third option that only then worked after shooting the grease to it, of course the grease boiled imediatly, but after a tube shot in there they were out in no time. That forklift was so heavy that you could just back into a clunker and cave the hole side in, Many a pinto's were victims of my destructive side. lol

[danny]

pintos? did you experience explosions?lol

[Trader Ray]

No, we pulled most gas tanks as they came in the yard. the only tanks left on were the ones behind the seats in pickups or the early front wheel drives with the tank tucked up over the rear trailing arms, it took a surgeon to get them darn things off. lol