Replacing the king pins and suspension bushings

[flyboy2610]

When I converted the front end from drum brakes to discs last fall, the shop that did the brake line fabrication for me pointed out that Frodo was in need of new bushings and king pins. Since I frankly don't drive him all that much, it was not a high priority job for me.
But the clunking from underneath has been getting more pronounced recently, so I decided I had better do the job. So follow along as Frodo get some suspension work!
First, I jacked him up and securely placed him on jack stands, two under the frame and two to support the I-beams. Safety is paramount in jobs like this, so please use good quality heavy duty jack stands under the frame. Every year, people die because a jack failed and let the vehicle come down on them. Don't you DARE be one of them!!!



I pulled the calipers off.


Followed by the hub/rotor assembly. Please note I have discs on the front. If you have drums, you will have more work to remove the brake assembly, but it all needs to come off.


Next to come off were the anchor brackets and dust shields.


Remove the front shocks.


Next, the drag link and tie rods have to come off. Use a good puller for this step. Some people like to loosen the nut and smack the assembly to separate the two, but I recommend a good puller. Here you can see that the drag link has been separated from the Pittman arm.



Separate the two tie rod ends from the steering knuckles, and withdraw the assembly from the vehicle.


It was at this stage that I discovered that this project had just gotten about $170 more expensive! All the tie rod ends were loose as a goose and completely shot! Oh, well.

One other critical piece of safety equipment is a good set of coil spring compressors. You do not want that coil to come flying off in a moment of explosive decompression! Get some proper spring compressors, and USE them! Since I was planning on having both I-beams off at the same time, I had to buy a second set. Still well worth the $40.


Here, I have loosened up the top spring cup that holds the spring to the I-beam. I have not completely removed it, though. To remove this, use a wrench on the nut by reaching through the spring coils. You may be able to remove it by using a socket and long piece of pipe on the I-beam/radius arm bolt, but there is a second nut underneath the spring seat, and they are on there pretty tight! I have placed the jack under the I-beam to support it.


Loosen the I-beam pivot bolt, the one that runs through the pivot bushing, and remove it. Lower the jack to let the I-beam drop out its bracket. You may have to "persuade" it to come free.


Remove the cotter pin and nut at the end of the radius rod, and pull the bushing off the end.


Place the jack under the I-beam/radius rod bolt and jack up the assembly until level. Remove the coil spring retaining cup that you loosened earlier. Pull the assembly forward until the radius rod comes clear of its bracket. The coil spring will pivot forward enough to allow it. Then roll the assembly back until the coil spring is straight up and down. The I-beam/radius rod bolt will still be inside the spring. Lower the jack slowly until the assembly is down. Take it off the jack.


You now have one side removed. Do the other in the same way.

"Bushings? What bushings? We don't need no stinking bushings!"

You can see where the clunking noise was coming from!

Here you can see that second nut on the I-beam/radius rod bolt I mentioned earlier.


They will be cleaned and painted before reassembly.


I pulled the grease fittings off and gave the king pins a good overnight soaking in penetrating oil, but to no avail. Those pins would NOT come out with a punch and 3 pound sledge hammer.


I finally took them down to Lincoln Clutch and Brake. To have the old pins pressed out, and the new bushings pressed in and reamed cost me $55. I though that was pretty reasonable. The guy at the shop said "Those old pins needed a LOT of force to come out of there!"
I plan to address that issue as we shall see in our next installment.
Thanks for reading!

[1972hiboy]

Great article!

[flyboy2610]

As mentioned in my previous post, the actual removal of the king pins and re-installation (and reaming) of the new brass bushings was done at Lincoln Clutch and Brake for what I felt was a very reasonable sum of $55. While this was being done, I cleaned and painted the I-beams and radius rods I planned to use. I acquired a set of radius rods (as best I can recall I got them from Keith, the site owner and administrator) which were much cleaner and shinier than those I removed from Frodo, so I decided to use those instead. I purchased new tie rods, an adjusting sleeve and a drag link from Autozone, cost me $166. I got everything primed and painted. Here's a pic after the king pins and I-beam bushings were installed:


Make certain that you install the correct spindle onto the correct I-beam. The steering knuckle MUST be on the same side as the steering stop pin, and is on the bottom of the spindle, as in this pic:


I put the I-beam bushings in first, so I wouldn't have the extra weight of the spindles flopping around on the other end. I used Prothane red polyurethane bushings on the beams and radius rods. These do not come with the metal shells. You must reuse the original bushings metal shells, so do not remove them from the I-beam. The part numbers are: I-beam 6-604 and radius rods 6-1207.
I encountered an interesting little "HUH?" as I was cleaning the I-beams. A previous owner had replaced the bushings with stock metal shelled rubber bushings, but on one of the beams he seems to have forgotten a step: he didn't get the old metal shell out before installing the new one!



I had a good laugh over that one! I decided that it wouldn't harm anything to leave it as it was, and I didn't want to have to tear out the old shells, just to install new OEM bushings and have to remove the rubber part. I ground down the extra metal to the height of the 'new' shell and called it good. The new bushings are a tight press fit into the old metal bushing shells, even when greased, as all polyurethane bushings should be or they will squeak like a mouse on steroids!

The i-beam bushings came with some little tear open plastic tubes of grease, but I knew there wouldn't be enough to do the whole job. I went up to Autozone to see if they had any grease. The clerk suggested Mobil-1 synthetic grease, as they didn't have grease made just for poly bushings. I bought a can and came home to do some research before I opened it, to see if others had used it for this job. It turns out the clerk was right on the money. Many people form various automotive sites have used this same grease for their poly bushings and have been very pleased with it. You do NOT want to use regular grease as it will attack the bushing material!


So, I was all set to install the bushings, but how to press them in? Ford makes a special tool for the job, but I'm sure it's hard to find and pretty pricey when you do! So I made something. I cut three pieces of 2" x 3/16 steel bar. One is 1.990" inches long, the other two are 1" long. In the long piece, I drilled a 1/2" hole through the center of the piece. I then welded the other two pieces vertically on each side. This allows me to straddle the metal I-beam bushing shell, but be snug enough so the tool doesn't wander. I had to weld this with flux core wire, as I am out of shielding gas for MIG. (I really don't care for flux core. It makes a lot of smoke, and I can't see what I'm doing as well. Plus trying to get the welding gun in there to do the welds!) Here's what it looks like:



To get the bushings started, I had to use one of the big metal washers for the radius rod bushings. This is because the length of the I-beam bushing and the width of the I-beam end exceeded the length of all the 1/2" bolts I have on hand. I could have run out and gotten some 1/2" all thread, but.... nah! Here's how I got the bushings in:
First, put on a disposable glove of some sort, either latex, vinyl, or rubber. This will keep you much cleaner. Get a glob of grease (Mobil-1 synthetic is even red like the bushings!)


and liberally coat the metal bushing insert.


The insert can be pressed easily into the bushing by hand. You want to do this now, as the bushing will compress during installation into the I-beam, making the insert much more difficult to install later.


Now, slather some grease on the outside of the bushing.


When installing the I-beam bushings, note that the flanged side of the bushing goes against the flanged side of the original bushings metal shell.
Get one of the metal washers that go on the radius rod bushings, a 1/2" bolt and nut, and several washers. Slide a couple washers over the bolt, insert the bolt through the bushing, insert the bushing into the end of the I-beam, place the radius rod washer over the bolt, and screw on the nut. This is what it will look like:


Tighten down the nut and the bolt will draw the bushing into the I-beam. The non flanged side of the bushing will contact the radius rod washer, preventing you from drawing the new bushing all the way into the shell.


Remember that tool I made earlier? Well, now is when I needed it. I removed the bolt and washers, and redid the assembly (minus the radius rod washer) with the tool I made.


This shot shows why I made the center piece the length I did. It was the distance between the outer edges of the old metal shell, plus two time the thickness of the steel bar, plus about .005" for clearance.


Tighten down the nut, drawing the bushing the rest of the way into the I-beam.


Do the other side the same way.
Now we get to install the king pins themselves. In addition to the king pins, bushings, and grease caps, these pieces came in the hardware set:



I knew where the thin metal shims were supposed to go, but I wasn't sure about the thick washer looking thingies. But my friends here helped me figure out that they're grease seals, and go between the top of the I-beam and the spindle.


So, mount the I-beam in your bench vise, top side up.


Remember how I said I would address the issue of hard to remove king pins? Anti-seize is your friend!


Put on another glove and get some anti-seize on your finger, then coat the inside of the I-beam (NOT inside the spindle bearing!) liberally.



The king pin has a slot in it into which a retaining bolt must fit.


When you install the king pin into the spindle, you lose sight of that slot. A helpful tip is to mark the top of the bolt so you know where that slot is, even if you can no longer see it.


Slide the king pin through the top of the spindle about 1/2-3/4" and slide the metal seal over the bolt. They fit pretty snugly.


Now set the spindle in place on top of the I-beam, with the slot in the bolt facing the I-beam.


Take one of the bearings that came in the kit, and insert it between the bottom of the I-beam and the spindle. The bearing that came with my kit is a sealed bearing, there is no way to grease it. Your kit may have a standard bearing, in which case you will need to grease it well before installation. In either case, install it open side DOWN to help prevent water from getting into the bearing.



Hopefully, it is a snug fit, requiring a few light taps with a plastic hammer to get it where you want it. Use a punch and a plastic hammer to tap the king pin a couple of inches down. Check up and down play in the spindle. Hopefully, there will be none. If there is play, tap the king pin back out from the bottom, and use the thin metal shims provided in the kit. Install these on top of the I-beam. You want the grease seal next to the spindle. Repeat the process until all play has been removed. In my case, the bearing and the grease seal were sufficient on both beams. I didn't have to use any shims!
When all play has been removed, tap the king pin down until the slot on the pin aligns with the slot in the I-beam. Install the retaining bolt, lock washer, and nut. Put the grease caps on.


Along with the grease Zerk's, there were 4 small plugs. I Installed these in the grease caps to keep junk out of there during the installation of the I-beams onto the truck. These will be removed and replaced with the Zerk's during the finishing up phase.



Next, we'll go put these back on the truck.
Thanks for reading!

[Brian339]

What a fantastic write up and bravo to a job well done. I imagine I will be doing this job myself in the spring 2013. Your write up will come in handy so thanks a million!

[flyboy2610]

OK, so now your truck is on jackstands and you have a bunch of freshly painted suspension parts in your basement (or spare bedroom) that need to go back on the truck, but you don't know how to replace them. Well, never fear cause I'se a gonna learn ya!

The first thing to do is prepare your work area. I put down some large unfolded cardboard boxes under Frodo to help keep from scratching the paint on the parts. You don't HAVE to put anything down, but you'll probably wind up with more scratches if you don't. And so will your suspension parts.
Note the orientation of the parts that go into each assembly. The steering knuckle is on the bottom of the spindle, on the same side of the I-beam as the steering stop. The shock mounts are on the inside of the radius rod, with the long 'tang' of the radius rod on top. The torque spec for the I-beam to radius rod bolt is 180-220 ft. lbs. for the F100 and F250, and 350-500 for the F350!
Good luck getting it THAT tight! If you tighten it down that tight, the upper and lower tangs on the radius rod will compress, and you will not be able to adjust the positioning relative to each other to get everything lined up where it has to go. I tightened the nut down until I could just move the radius rod with some effort. There is another nut that goes on this bolt later, which I tightened up good, so I feel confident that nothing is going to go anywhere. The Ford factory probably had a jig they used to position the I-beam and radius rod, but I don't!


Now put on a disposable glove and get a glob of grease on your finger.


Smear it on the bushing end of the radius rod.


Smear some grease on the front of the radius rod bushing where it will contact the curved washer, and install the washer, then the bushing. The two washers I used on each side had one with a large hole and one with a small hole. The larger hole one goes towards the front of the truck, the small hole towards the rear. This is because of the different diameters on each end of the radius rod.


Slather some grease inside the radius rod mounting bracket hole. The idea is to have grease anywhere that polyurethane will touch metal.


Next, place the assembly on the floor jack with the saddle under the I-beam/radius rod bolt. Raise the assembly until the radius rod can slide into it's bracket.


Install the lower spring seat. After this installation was completed, I was looking at the factory diagram and discovered that this seat may actually be installed backwards on my truck. It shows the open bent end towards the front. But this is how it was when it came off the truck, so this is how it went back on.


Jack up the assembly until the coil spring is over the bolt, and install the upper coil spring retainer and nut. Torque for this nut is 18-25 ft. lbs.


Jack up the assembly a bit more until the radius rod is pretty much parallel to the ground.


Grease the rear bushing up real good and install it, along with the other washer (the one with the small hole, if yours have different diameter holes.) You may not be able to get the rear bushing into the hole far enough to get the washer on behind it, and still have enough threads available to start the castellated nut. That was the case with both sides of my truck. So what I did was start the nut and use just the nut to force the bushing into the hole, then I removed the nut, installed the washer, and reinstalled the nut. Torque for this nut is 80-120 ft. lbs. I did not torque the nuts to proper torque yet, though. I did all the torquing after the suspension was installed. One other thing about these washers. When I removed the originals from the truck the front washer was oriented as you see it in this picture. The rear washer, however, was backwards from what you see in this picture. It was actually oriented exactly as the front washer is! There was writing engraved on the washers, which indicated that they were properly oriented on the truck, and the factory diagram confirms this. So the rear washer in this pic is actually backwards from factory orientation. The way you see them now is how they were on the radius rods I got from Keith, site owner and administrator. The rods also had some blue urethane(?) bushings on them, which had marks on them indicating that the washers had been oriented that way for quite some time. I really like the way they look now better, so that's how they're going to stay. Just be aware that the rear washer is technically installed backwards.


Now you can lower the jack, and prepare to do the I-beam bushing.


The I-beam bushing is actually a three part assembly; the main bushing, the metal insert to keep the pivot bolt from destroying the bushing, and a thin circular thrust bearing. The thrust bearing goes on the non flanged side of the bushing, to help keep lateral twist at bay. It needs to be thoroughly greased inside and out.



Ready for installation. (Looks like a candy apple, doesn't it? Go ahead, take a bite if you want. I'll pass, though.)


Place the jack under the I-beam and lift it into position.


If you are lucky, the bushing insert will be perfectly lined up with the hole in the mounting bracket. Me? Well........


With the aid of a long drift punch and a pry bar, I got everything lined up. I put a thin coating of anti seize on the pivot bolt before I installed it, just in case I ever have to remove it again. Torque for this nut is 120-150 for the F100 and F250, 120-180 for the F350.



One side done! Now for the other.....


The other side is done the same way. When I did this, the first side took almost 3 hours. The second side took less than an hour. I guess that's because I did all the head scratchin' doing the first side!


Now, let's finish this job up!

[flyboy2610]

Finishing up
Re-installing the steering gear and brakes.

This project is coming to a close. Good thing too, because Frodo's busy season is about to start. (He's very handy to have around in the fall when yard work is being done. )

Here's all the freshly painted steering gear ready to go back on. I measured from tie rod to tie rod on the old gear I took off, and bench set the new tie rod assembly to that measurement, and snugged down the adjusting sleeve.


Be sure to install the new rubber boots before putting the new gear on.


Here I have installed the drag link to the Pittman arm, and the drivers side tie rod to the steering knuckle. Note that the tie rods go threads up on both knuckles. Proper torque for all tie rod ends is 60-75 ft. lbs.


Passenger side.


The center tie rod gets a special flat faced rubber boot, as it connects to the flat surface on the drag link.


After I had installed all the tie rods, I went through the front suspension and tightened all nuts to proper specs, installing new cotter pins on all castellated nuts as required. Cotter pins are cheap, so don't even THINK about reusing the old ones! I next installed all the grease Zerks, on the tied rods and on the spindles. I greased all Zerks until grease was coming out of the part.


I reinstalled the anchor brackets and dust shields. Torque spec for the anchor bracket to spindle bolts is 55-75 Ft. lbs.


I put the hub/rotor back on, and followed the proper procedure for tightening the wheel bearing nut. It got a new cotter pin also.


I reinstalled the brake calipers, torquing the mounting bolts to 17-23 ft. lbs.


I put Frodo's front tires back on, and let him get his feet back on the ground!



He'll go to a shop to have the alignment checked and set, and then
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TD_pSeNelU

Thanks for following along! I hope I've helped someone in some small way. May God go with you down the highway!

[jp2005]

Job well done!

[flyboy2610]

Thanks!I haven't had an opportunity yet to test drive the truck, but I'm sure it'll drive 100% better!

[Barsopper]

You are THE man. Thanks so much for taking the time to chronicle one of... The Big Ones. As an OU grad, I retract everything I have ever said about Nebraska. Thank you.

[flyboy2610]

You are THE man. Thanks so much for taking the time to chronicle one of... The Big Ones. As an OU grad, I retract everything I have ever said about Nebraska. Thank you.

You're welcome!

[91Bear]

Where did you get the poly bushings - and can you get them in black? I'm not too fond of red.

[flyboy2610]

They are Prothane brand bushings. I got them off Amazon.com
I don't know if they come in black or not, though.

[SoCalExile]

You mentioned replacing the drag link and tie rods, what about the center link? Does that usually need to be replaced as well?

[flyboy2610]

You mentioned replacing the drag link and tie rods, what about the center link? Does that usually need to be replaced as well?

Yes, I replaced the entire assembly.

[papabug71]

Bump to the top. This write up should be a sticky

Thanks for taking the time to take pics & post everything flyboy. I have this project coming up in the near future & was dreading it. Not so much now.

Thanks again.