Disc brake setup

[sargentrs]

If you're going to replace your king pins and spindle bushings, do yourself a favor and take them to a machine shop. That is, unless you have a good shop setup with a 10-20 ton hydraulic press and the proper reaming tool. Mine cost me $200 labor + $85 parts. They bead blasted the spindles and I-beams and shot a coat of rattle can black on them for me, too. They didn't like working with nasty parts

[flyboy2610]

When I replaced the king pins in my '69 F250, I had the old ones pressed out and new bronze bushings installed and reamed for $55.

[sargentrs]

That's a good price, flyboy. I just took them my I-beams with the drum spindles and a set of disc spindles and the king pin/bushing set and said "Here, fix 'em." Probably why it cost me $20.

[ultraranger]

If I was going through the trouble of switching from front drums to discs (which I did back in October) I would not try to cheap out by not installing new kingpins and bushings. This is the time to freshen it up with new parts.

These trucks are old and unless the kingpins and bushings were just replaced in the last couple or so years, they're likely worn. You're not going to get the most potential out of the new disc brakes if there's slack in the kingpins.

If the kingpins are sloppy and worn, it's going to accelerate the wear on the tires too and will make it more difficult to keep the truck between the lines when you're going down the road.

No garages/alignment shops in my area had the tools to ream the kingpin bushings. I called an engine shop in a neighboring town and told the owner what I had. He said he had some reamers I could borrow. I did the bushings/pins myself.

[sargentrs]

Aha! So you're the one who had that write up showing the tool reaming the bushings. You have no idea, Steve, how many times I've looked for that photo trying to reply to a bushing thread. Thanks for posting that up again. Saved for future reference (all copyright laws recognized as the property of ultraranger ).