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Question on D60 king pin & knuckle rebuild

dieselponyexpress

dieselponyexpress

1/2 ton status
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Jan 26, 2004
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Germany
TodayI installed all new (both sides):
- king pin with bushing & spring
- top cap
- lower bearing&race
- lower cap
- knuckle
- GREASE

the knuckles now are VERY hard to move by hand (without any steering linkage connected). Is this correct? :confused:
Sure, I expected a tight fit compared to the old stuff, but I think it's a little too tight now. :grind:

Any experiences?
 
thanks for the tip.

tied it down with a 5ft breaker bar, I don't have a torque wrench for 700ft/lbs although.

I did it like written down at pirate4x4 but there's nothing about hard movement after the rebuild.

thanks again
 
I have rebuilt a couple...always a noticable difference but not hard to move by any means..
 
Are you guys sure you have the lower bearing race seating properly in the C knuckle? If the race isn't installed all the way it would be hard to turn by hand.
 
I do not know of any average person that has a tourqe wrench that goes to 600 Ft. Lbs. When I was a heavy duty diesel mechanic, we had a 3/4 inch drive tourqe wrench that went to a maximum of 750 Ft. Lbs. The shop supplied the wrench for our use because it was a $500 tool. It actualy measured every thing in Yard Pounds, instead of Foot Pounds, because it was 36 inches long.
 
1-ton said:
I do not know of any average person that has a tourqe wrench that goes to 600 Ft. Lbs. When I was a heavy duty diesel mechanic, we had a 3/4 inch drive tourqe wrench that went to a maximum of 750 Ft. Lbs. The shop supplied the wrench for our use because it was a $500 tool. It actualy measured every thing in Yard Pounds, instead of Foot Pounds, because it was 36 inches long.
Click to expand...

Are you saying i'm not average? :D I have a Snap-on torque wrench that goes from 200-600 ft. lbs. and also 4 other Snap-on torque wrenches for various other torque jobs.
 
Are you saying i'm not average? I have a Snap-on torque wrench that goes from 200-600 ft. lbs. and also 4 other Snap-on torque wrenches for various other torque jobs.
Click to expand...

Damn, I just spent $70 to buy a Craftsman tourqe wrench that goes to a maximum of 250 Ft. Lbs. My only option to tourqe down the king pin on a Dana-60 is my breaker bar, and a 1-Ft. long cheater bar. This should get me to within 60 or 70 Ft. Lbs, or so...of the correct tourqe spec. :doah:
 
Let me suggest that before i bought my 600 ft. lb. torque wrench i used a 500 ft. lb. torque wrench which had a 4 1/2 ft. handle and then i used a breaker bar along with a cheater bar for a total of 4 1/2' and it still wasn't at 600 ft. lbs. according to my 600 ft. lb. torque wrench that i later checked it with. I highly doubt that the king pin will come loose even if you tightened it as much as you can with a cheater bar.
 
4X4HIGH said:
Are you guys sure you have the lower bearing race seating properly in the C knuckle? If the race isn't installed all the way it would be hard to turn by hand.
Click to expand...

I seated it against the metal dust cap. The lower seal however sticks out a little (1/4").
 
I always figured on taking my axle to the heavy diesel shop my friend works at if I replace my kingpins.
 
what kind of kingpin condition would warrant their replacement? Once I cleaned mine, it isn't "perfect", but could easily be cleaned up w/ some emery cloth. Would it be bad to replace everything except the kingpin itself? I'm really only replacing the stuff for good measure. The grease is a little cruddy, but otherwise everything looks pretty good.
 
The driver's side king pin was in really good condition. If I wouldn't have about 8 new king pins lying around (just the king pins and the spring plates - don't ask why!) and already borrowed the tools for loosening it, I wouldn't have changed this one. As you described: some emery cloth should do the job.

The passenger side however was shot. Looked like there was either no grease in it some time during its long life or a lot of dirt/sand/salt/rust. Lots of scratches all around, the whole thing looked more like a sponge than a king pin. :crazy:

IMHO the surface should be smooth and symetrical. If in doubt, replace it. A worn king pin will ruin new bushings in no time.
 
dieselponyexpress said:
The driver's side king pin was in really good condition. If I wouldn't have about 8 new king pins lying around (just the king pins and the spring plates - don't ask why!) and already borrowed the tools for loosening it, I wouldn't have changed this one. As you described: some emery cloth should do the job.

The passenger side however was shot. Looked like there was either no grease in it some time during its long life or a lot of dirt/sand/salt/rust. Lots of scratches all around, the whole thing looked more like a sponge than a king pin. :crazy:

IMHO the surface should be smooth and symetrical. If in doubt, replace it. A worn king pin will ruin new bushings in no time.
Click to expand...

Well crap, I'm too paranoid to just let it be. I guess I'll figure out a way to pull these buggers :doah: I always do this, look for the easy way out then lay awake and night thinking about the "what-ifs" then end up doing it the right way (usually the harder way) when it's all said and done afterall. :crazy:

BTW- what tools are you planning to use other than a big allen wrench and a cheater pipe? Are you setup to actually measure 500-600# I figure that I would use about 4' of cheater and put my 275# ass into it. :haha:
 
Did you grease the kingpin and nylon bushing BEFORE installing? If you assemble it "dry" and then try to pump grease in, it takes longer for it to work it's way between the two. I've done a lube before install and dry install (using the same tools and new kingpins, nylon on both) and it was a big difference in initial turning effort.
 
my way:

one BAD kingpin:

445508_8_full.jpg


it's easy with the right tools ..

445508_9_full.jpg


a bigass cheaterbar helps alot:

445508_11_full.jpg


i also put on plenty of loctite when installing the new kingpins...

my knuckles aren't that tight anymore ..i moved them back and forward a couple times then pumped in more grease..it's better now

ot. dieselponyexpress: i am in desperate need of a pair of D60 springplates..send me an email if youre interested..
 
BigCountryx said:
BTW- what tools are you planning to use other than a big allen wrench and a cheater pipe? Are you setup to actually measure 500-600# I figure that I would use about 4' of cheater and put my 275# ass into it. :haha:
Click to expand...

That should do it.
Only thing here in Germany was to get a non metric allen wrench THAT SIZE!! :mad:

On driver's side I used one of the lug nuts (long style) and a 2' cheater pipe. It popped right out within one minute.
Happily I wanted to do the same thing on the other one. No luck here with the lug nut, I almost broke it.
While the king pin was soaked in rust solvent, I searched 2 days and finally at a scrapyard I found a big old jackhammer with a 7/8 allen size on one end. :bow:
I cutted it down an slipped it in. First try with my 2' pipe did nothing to that §$&$%§!!
I took a BIG (1") electric impact wrench from work - no chance.
Than I got a 4' pipe. Either I would turn my old K30 around or that SOB would come loose :mad:
That did it - ok, maybe a combination of my earlier tries and the rust solvent helped a bit :D

Heat is the key I think. Everyone I told it since, asked me why not heated it up. :doah:

I installed it with the 4' pipe. Don't think it will ever come loose.
 
Leadfoot said:
Did you grease the kingpin and nylon bushing BEFORE installing? If you assemble it "dry" and then try to pump grease in, it takes longer for it to work it's way between the two. I've done a lube before install and dry install (using the same tools and new kingpins, nylon on both) and it was a big difference in initial turning effort.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's much better now. I turned it a few times and greased it again.
Thanks.
 
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