Questions itching my brain...

[nau81blazer]

Hey everyone,

I just have couple questions about things that I don't know:

1. What are king pins? What is the advantage of having them? I always hear alot of talk about them but I don't know what they are.

2. What does a torque converter do? What does the stall speed have to do with anything? How do you match up the correct torque converter with your transmission/engine combo?

3. What is the advantage of having a steering shaft with a u-joint vs. a rag joint?

Thanks in advance for helping me understand these things!

--Adam

 

[diesel4me]

1-2-3...

1.King pins are used instead of ball joints on many older axles ,like the solid "I" beam ones on old cars and trucks,and many heavy duty vehicles like a C-60..just another way of joining the steering knuckle to the axle....they are probably stronger than ball joints..they have no "socket" they can pull out of..think of a hinge pin,and thats what a kingpin looks like..

2.Torque converter takes the place of a clutch,and can multiply torque..its a fluid coupling between the tranny and engine..think of it as two fan blades submerged in oil,in a closed chamber..one blade attached to the engine,the other to the tranny input shaft..the oil separating them..once the one the engine is spinning goes fast enough,it turns the other blade,and the vehicle moves..its a lot more complicated,but thats a breif description of one..

Stall Speed is the RPM a converter will let the engine rev up to if the wheels are locked,and the engine is wide open..the higher it is,the more "slippage" ocours at lower RPM's..engines with hot cams that have little low end power and poor idle often need a higher stall speed to take full advantage of the cam and engine performance..a stock motor or one built for low end power uses a lower stall speed,or a stock converter..only "racing" motors realy need a high stall speed converter..they are not that desireable for street use,they make tons of extra heat,which can lower tranny life a great deal,even with a cooler..I don't think any 4x4 truck would want one,unless its a mud racer that sees only high rpm beatings..

3. A u-joint is made of forged steel..a "rag" joint is a hunk of tire bolting your steering shaft from the colum to the steering box!..the steel u-joints are much less likely to break when flexing the truck over bumps,and severe off road abuse..I had a rag joint tear off while driving my truck home from a scrapyard run a few years ago..just got done dropping a huge diesel bulldozer engine that weighed 2 tons off!..I nearly stained my shorts when the streering wheel spun around with nothing connected!..good thing I was making a slow U-turn when it broke!--I'd be DEAD if it happened a few moments earlier.. ...

 

[Robert79K5]

Just to expound a little on the Diesels post...

The reason that the oem uses a rag joint instead of a u-joint from the factory is that the rag joint dosnt transmit vibration from the frame/steering box up through the steering collumn like a u-joint will.
Even if your rag joint breaks there should be safety stops built in. It just makes a LOT of slop in your steering and can be very dangerous if your on the highway.

 

[nau81blazer]

Great! Thanks guys, i appreciate your help. I still don't understand the kingpin thing too well but I'll try to read over the post a couple more times. Thanks again guys!

--Adam