Making quick work of those dreaded kingpins...

[The Pumpkinator]

There are many strategic attacks out there for the removal of Dana 60 upper kingpins, but which method is the quickest and worry free? Ive poked here and there around the web for different ideas and procedures, here are some that I found;

Welding 2x2" square tube to the kingpin and wrenching it off with a large pipe wrench and a 8' cheater bar.

Making or purchasing a large piece of 7/8" hex stock, heating the king pin, and wrenching it off with an 8' cheater bar.

Attempting to quench the kingpin with either ice or cold water.

Drilling out the kingpin entirely.

Grinding a thin, deep groove around the base of the kingpin to alleviate the pressure between the two mating surfaces.

I'm sure there are a couple more tricks out there, but what do you do when your rebuilding your 1 ton gem on a bench without a truck sitting on top of it? Or what happens when the top kingpin hex fitting twists apart, or your tools break? What about the fear of galling the threads by overheating the inner knuckle casting and placing tremendous amounts of torque on that kingpin? Even more scary, what happens when that pipe wrench slips and hurdles toward your truck's pristine sheet metal or even yourself?

Here's my painless/hassle-free quick procedure that worked surprisingly well for me...

 

[The Pumpkinator]

I've tried heating the kingpin and attempted to back it off with a 3/4" drive impact, nothin, I've tried grinding a notch around the kingpin, heating it, quenching it, and rattled on it with the 3/4" impact...no go, and i rounded out a nice looking lug nut too.

Time to try something different, there's another way to alleviate all that pressure holding the kingpin in by drilling.

To my surprise the kingpin is not a hardened steel, so welding, drilling, or grinding is quick and easy. After cleaning all the grease out of the kingpin, grab yourself a nice sharp 1/4" drill bit and your favorite drill gun, there's no need to worry about center punching the bottom of the well in the kingpin; it already has a nice tapered cone in there.

Try to drill down through the kingpin as straight as you can, remember to stop once and a while to dump some cutting fluid in there to help cool the bit and keep it sharp

After you fall through, ream the hole out with a larger drill bit (3/8" is a good size).

Next whip out that cutting torch and heat the bottom of the kingpin till it is glowing cherry red (not bright orange,lol) without applying the flame to the surrounding casting.

 

[The Pumpkinator]

Now let the kingpin and the inner knuckle normalize for about 3-5min, you should start to hear all that pressure alleviating by ticking and popping.

After 5min, grab a small cup and an ice cold bottle of water out of the fridge, repeatedly pour the water through the hole you drilled in the kingpin about several times, careful not to dump any of the water on the casting, this will make it brittle and weak by unintentionally quenching it.

Now whip out that huge a$$ impact, drop a lug nut in the kingpin and break that thing free!

 

[The Pumpkinator]

What startled me is that it was effortless with the impact and it zipped right out pretty darn fast, I bet I could have easily broke them loose with a 1/2" drive breaker bar and threaded them out by hand!

Yeah, yeah, my hole wasn't perfectly centered, but at least the kingpin is out of the casting

Here's the passenger side kingpin, notice I've tried grinding a notch around it and still had hell trying to get it out before I drilled the hole...

So there you have it, two nice paper weights for your desk. They both walked right out of the inner knuckles and it only took about 15min per pin!

 

[GreenieK30]

I use a big allen wrench and hit it with a big plastic sledge hammer and they always spin right off.

 

[The Pumpkinator]

I use a big allen wrench and hit it with a big plastic sledge hammer and they always spin right off.

You're lucky, I couldn't make these things budge it heat, quenching, using a BFH on a breaker bar, or rattling the hell out of them with a 3/4" drive impact gun (rounded out a couple of lug nuts using it though). Since I'm rebuilding my axle on a bench, I don't have the luxury of a 5200lb truck sitting on it as an anchor for when I bring out the 8' cheater bar to spin off those 600ft/lb torqued kingpins.

 

[Fred_M1010]

Did you really need to replace them?
They don't look so worn to me, but the pics are a little blurry

 

[Fred_M1010]

And really great write-up btw

 

[sweetk30]

i have a 6ft pipe

3/4 drive snap-on ratchet

7/8 hex driver from snap-on

and best of all a 600ft lb tourqe wrench from snap-on.

all this made quick work of my king pins i have done.

also first set i ever did wow what a crack when the pins snaped loose.

but if you need to do 1 set thats o.k. you can get by with out these tools. but i got lots of room in my box as you can see so i filled it up with the tools.

 

[The Pumpkinator]

Thanks for the comments. The passenger side kingpin was pretty eaten up (deep scoring on the side of the kingpin that looks in towards the diff) however the driver's side looked "ok" ,still had deep wear marks, since the upper kingpin comes included in a kingpin rebuild kit, I figured why not? Nice learning experience and I can save a friend or myself some money later on down the road

Awesome tool setup you got Sweetk30! I think my dad has the same size box in red, however he doesn't have all the cabinets and additions. Those things are damn expensive, the box by itself is a serious investment, let alone all the Snap-On tools in it.
The sad part is that I have access to all the tools required to rebuild aircraft, but when it comes to automotive, forget it

 

[4X4HIGH]

Nice little write up. I removed my upper king pins on the garage floor when I rebuilt my axle and I just used a 6' cheater bar along with a 7/8" allen socket I made and they came right out. I think the location of where the axle came from has alot to do with it though. Cali parts aren't full of rust like alot of other places.

 

[Highpsi]

So I'm gonna dig this post back up for a few reasons. 1) To give a big THANK YOU to the o.p for this trick. It put an end to about an hour of fooling around and getting nowhere with my kingpin removal attempt. 2) To add a few notes of my own about my experience trying it.

So I had gone the same route with finding other posts about grinding a relief into the kingpin base and then proceeding to just put a little bit of pressure on, or impact gun and voila they just pop right out!... Yea... Riiiight.
Somehow I knew that try was going to be too good to be true for my rusty nightmare axle. I'm sure it must work great for some ppl. but like 4X4HIGH said - experiences vary probably based on where the truck was from.


So anyway - here's a few things I'd like to add.

1) My kingpins were anything BUT easy to drill through.. I was even using new craftsman drill bits so they were sharp for starters. The first pilot holes with the 1/4" were somewhat painless but going up in sizes proved increasingly difficult even with the 1/4 pilot there. After breaking the first kingpin loose and going over to the other side, I even gave up and decided to just try it with the 1/4 hole.

2) The torch is a must, that's for sure. I think the concentrated heat and then spot cooling is what really makes this one work. While waiting the 3 to 5 minutes for the area to normalize, I beat around the edge of the C with a brass hammer. No idea if this helped any, but I did it to both sides.

3) When pouring the cold water in, if you have a bigger bottle and just put some ice in it and shake you've got COLD water ready to go. And a small funnel is very helpful to ensure there's no spillage as the o.p has mentioned earlier. The funnel will catch the ice too. Very small things yes, but they made it very easy to do.

So after those steps, I tried my Snap On 1/2 impact (biggest I have) and it still didn't move. Uh-Oh, here we go.. I thought I was screwed. Grabbed my cheap-o 1/2" 3ft. harbor freight breaker bar, and 2 foot cheater pipe and POP!! It came free with a fairly decent pull.

I've been reading many posts for months now and dreading this job. One of the biggest things I've noticed about all the posts on this subject and information out there is the varied results people have. Some of us seem to have it much worse than the others, and I've seen a tendency for people to trivialize this job based on their results. (I've even heard a vendor who sells a tool for this do so in a youtube vid). I know I sound like a broken record here but the old saying of "results may vary" really rings true here.

I probably would have left the pins alone if I didn't have a torch and welder but I figured why not give it a shot since they're in the kit I needed for servicing the kingpins. (One of them was questionable too).

So again, a big thanks to Pumpkinator. This was a great idea that worked for me after the other techniques failed!

 

[K85 Octane]

yep. agree with a great technique and write up, thanks for the post



I elected not to replace mine as they were in great shape. If I did, being my geographical area and shape of the axle, I probably could have gotten away with a 3/8 hand ratchet.

 

[The Pumpkinator]

Thanks for the comments, I'm glad to see this thread being kept alive and still helping out fellow 4x4 enthusiasts.

As far as other people's experience dealing with kingpins, I couldn't agree more, too many variables. Highpsi, those kingpins look like a chore on that rusty d60!

Furthermore anyone who wishes to add input, share their ideas, tips and tricks, is more than welcome to do so, it makes kingpin removal that much more easier.

 

[454Sub]

Would antiseize help on the threads? Just came to me as I was reading this, every single one I have ever changed was a nightmare from beginning to end. Im going to try this method for sure next time.

 

[sweetk30]

you WANT the pin to lock in place and not walk out.

and if your wearing out king pins and need to change them this fast you got other problems.

 

[Highpsi]

Highpsi, those kingpins look like a chore on that rusty d60!
.

Indeed! I'd almost decided to give up and haul the axle to a shop or something to have them give a whack at it but I took a break and went inside and looked this time for a specific search in the CK5 forums.

Once again CK5 saves the day! (Or YOU did I should say...)

 

[The Pumpkinator]

Once again CK5 saves the day! (Or YOU did I should say...)

If you want some good laughs, check out some of the crazy procedures people used over on Pirate 4x4, I'm surprised no one was rushed to the ER!

 

[K85 Octane]

anyone tried using just a torch to pop a hole through the center? Or is that too risky?

 

[Fordum]

Would antiseize help on the threads? Just came to me as I was reading this, every single one I have ever changed was a nightmare from beginning to end. Im going to try this method for sure next time.

As much as I like NeverSeeze, it might not be a great idea here. But, if you chased the threads, or at least cleaned them up as good as you can, and then put Loctite on them, it would do almost as well.

Even though Loctite locks the threads, it actually acts a little like a lubricant when heated to its release point.
And tends to seal out any air and prevent rust.

As long as you heated the kingpin when you went to take it back out, it should make it easier.