Top trunnion pin removal.

I'm dismantling the suspension on the BN1 and the top trunnion pin is being very stubborn. What's the technique? The big hammer approach doesn't seem to be working!

On the car - you could apply penetrant and withdraw the castellated nut a couple of turns, heat the ends of the arms with a propane torch (avoid heating the pin itself), then use a large c-clamp with a socket wrench around the head of the pin (that would allow it to move). Tighten the c-clamp and push the pin out.

Off the car - you could remove the kingpin castellated nut and the shock fixing bolts; and take the shock with upper trunion to the work bench.
Apply penetrant such as kroil or PB Blaster to where the pin goes through the shock arms. Undo the castellated nut on the pin and replace it with a regular nut; back the nut out a couple of turns but leave it on the pin. Turn the shock sideways and support the arm ends over the gap in a large vise. Take your lead hammer and hit the nut - this should loosen the pin. Or if your vise is big enough you could use a socket per method one and squeeze the pin loose.

Thanks Steve, I'll give those techniques a try.

Have you managed to remove the bottom wishbone pins? You may have to do what I did and cut through them - bought an air driven recip saw as it takes an age by hand with just a blade. You may have to resort to cutting the top pin as well. To get the top trunnion off put the king pin and axle assembly in a large vice ( hold it by the bottom trunnion) and put a 3 foot bar through the top trunnion and use brute force and ignorance to push and pull that bar back and forth to rotate the top trunnion off. Hope that this is of some help.



Bob

I've only had problems with the top trunnion (still haven't had time to try Steve's suggestion). Everything else came apart relatively easily. The suspension was rebuilt about 12 years ago by Cape International so I'm not playing with 50 odd years of corroded joints. Pulling it all apart now ready to get the bodyshell fettled and repainted.