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King Pin Tool, Cheap and works too! (long ,sorry)

Mudbug1979

Mudbug1979

1/2 ton status
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Aug 4, 2002
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Location
Monroe,North Carolina
Well, while rebuilding my 60 I decided against my better judgement to go ahead and replace the king pins. Ordered my rebuild kits from WFO, Super fast service. The hardest part about this job was finding the 7/8" allen key, or hex stock. After searching countless places no one had it instock, so I was on my way to lunch and decided to stop in the local Northern Tool. Of course they don't carry anything special in that department, but something caught my eye. On the shelf sat a big arse cold chisel, so I picked it up and went over the tool isle and low and behold it was 7/8". I bought it (9.95) and took it back to the shop. I had to grind just a touch off of it because of the coating that was on it, slipped enough to fill up the king pin and then cut off enough to fill up a deep well impact socket. Works like a charm, just thought I'd share a tip with you guys and gals.
Jeremy.
 
That's good to know! Good work. Do you happen to know a part# or something? Or would most of the big cold chisels be 7/8? Maybe I should go shopping at HF with a set of dial calipers...:D
 
Improvise!!

I used a bolt with a nut welded on it for an "allen wrench" on a tranny drain plug that was a weird size on a VW bus I had once..when all else fails,Improvize!...nesessity is the mother of invention they say..good idea,using a chisel!...:bow:
 
i ordered mine online for like $12 the last time a thread like this came up and someone had a link to a big online tool store...lol
 
diesel4me said:
I used a bolt with a nut welded on it for an "allen wrench" on a tranny drain plug that was a weird size on a VW bus I had once..when all else fails,Improvize!...nesessity is the mother of invention they say..good idea,using a chisel!...:bow:
Click to expand...
Yeah, yeah. That's fine for low torque situations. I already improvised the first kingpin out, but the second was a bit more stubborn. It snapped off a 9/16 grade 8 bolt like it was nothing. It's gonna take something more than the usual bolt with nuts jammed/welded on to it.
 
Any place that makes Ag driveshafts should have 7/8" hex stock available. My boss also owns a farm and ranch supply place in Scottsbluff and has some extra laying around that he gave me.

Chris
 
we (pvfjr and i) have found the cheapest eastest tool to use to get these out. are you ready for this?

we started out doing the welded nuts to the 9/16 bolt. i went right through that one. then we started thinking of what else we could use, and he saw some regluar lug nuts on the ground and started asking if it would work to tighten them against each other with the round sides in, and fill in the space with weld, then grind to make flat, just as he was saying that i saw the perfect tool that was even better. it was one of those ordinary 9/16 lugnuts that are long (like two inches) and have the blind hole. it worked perfect and barely even put a scratch on the lug nut.

wk-27.jpg


why has no one said anything about this yet? it is too simple for us to be the first ones, right?
 
I feel we have all been so dumb for so long, but Donahue and I have seen the light. It should have happened long ago, before snapping off multiple 9/16" grade 8 bolts with nuts welded to them. Before talks of hex stock, or chisels that could be cut down. Before any of that, there should have been this. I feel so disappointed that we had to find this the hard way after a struggle had already ensued previous advice given. The end all, be all of cheap, quick, effective, and easy kingpin removal tools.....


 
Armstrong makes a 3/4 drive 7/8 hex impact socket that looks like a winner for breaking loose these king pins, but at 35 bucks it's not as inexpensive as some of these other solutions. A honker of an impact wrench sure would be nice for persuading a part that's torqued to 600 ft lbs though! I'll probably get one of these about the same time I get around to booting my 10-bolts for a 14Bff/D60 combo.
 
1985_K5_Silverado said:
Armstrong makes a 3/4 drive 7/8 hex impact socket that looks like a winner for breaking loose these king pins, but at 35 bucks it's not as inexpensive as some of these other solutions. A honker of an impact wrench sure would be nice for persuading a part that's torqued to 600 ft lbs though! I'll probably get one of these about the same time I get around to booting my 10-bolts for a 14Bff/D60 combo.
Click to expand...

i really hope that picture is a generic one. it looks a little cheddar
87774.jpg
 
I was trying the long lugnut trick today. I never broke the lugnut. I did however break the handle off a ratchet using a cheater bar that was a couple inches down the handle, also broke the ratchet mechanism on the same ratchet in my 2nd attempt. Thought I got smart and pulled out my 1/2" breaker bar, and broke the 1/2" drive into pieces. Also bent a 45 in a 7/8" box end wrench, the hard way (against the thickest dimension).

Kingpin is still in the axle too... I'm going to buy a really big breaker bar (3/4 or 1" drive) and an impact socket and have at it later this week.
 
Well the broken ratchet and breaker bar don't really surprise me. The bent wrench is a little impressive though. :eek1: You must've gotten a tough one. Good to hear that the lug nut holds up to that kind of abuse though.
 
and dont waste your money on the socket, just the breaker bar. we used a 3/4 drive and a 3ft piece of pipe.
 
thedrip said:
I was trying the long lugnut trick today. I never broke the lugnut. I did however break the handle off a ratchet using a cheater bar that was a couple inches down the handle, also broke the ratchet mechanism on the same ratchet in my 2nd attempt. Thought I got smart and pulled out my 1/2" breaker bar, and broke the 1/2" drive into pieces. Also bent a 45 in a 7/8" box end wrench, the hard way (against the thickest dimension).

Kingpin is still in the axle too... I'm going to buy a really big breaker bar (3/4 or 1" drive) and an impact socket and have at it later this week.
Click to expand...


I'm having the exact same issue :mad: :mad:. Broke my 1/2" Breaker{craftsman} and bent a craftsman 7/8" wrench :mad:. Time to get a snap on I guess.
 
Helps to heat the piss out of the C before you try cracking it, as long as you do it slowly. Our local industrial supply had the 7/8 hex key, so I used that and a 6' piece of 1-1/4" gas pipe, but I propped my tiger torch underneath the kingpin first, turned it down low, and let it heat up slowly for about half an hour before I cranked on it. Popped loose first try.
 
When I did mine I borrowed a 7/8 allen wrench from work. with a 4 foot pipe on it the badly worn kingpin split. So I tried grabbing it on the outside with a 24" pipe wrench... and a 6 foot pipe. It gripped good but was going to fall off the jackstands. Then I got a great idea
900632776_2d7472e6c5.jpg

I put a sling thru the eye on the handle and a 1 1/2 ton come-a-long to a hook on the frame. Instant 3 foot tons (6000 lbs) Yeah, it came easy after that...
 
kitimatdude said:
When I did mine I borrowed a 7/8 allen wrench from work. with a 4 foot pipe on it the badly worn kingpin split. So I tried grabbing it on the outside with a 24" pipe wrench... and a 6 foot pipe. It gripped good but was going to fall off the jackstands. Then I got a great idea
900632776_2d7472e6c5.jpg

I put a sling thru the eye on the handle and a 1 1/2 ton come-a-long to a hook on the frame. Instant 3 foot tons (6000 lbs) Yeah, it came easy after that...
Click to expand...

Good idea. I may try that :D,
 
i managed to get the allen at napa so that wasnt bad for me, accept i have the axle out of the truck so heres how i did it, and it worked damn good. (it did get a little nerve racking theres a huge bang then its free, i did the first and almost $h!t my pants, the anticipation for the second one as you can see from my expression)

100_5552.jpg

then for torqueing them down i just kept flipping the axle on the jackstands so no matter what the pipe was being pushed down, me and my dad ripped on it for about a half hour, until the cones didnt move anymore then we figured it was good and tight
 
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