MGB King Pins appear fine am I missing something?

[Boggsy64]

Before tearing apart the front end in my 1977 MGB, I read many threads online and it seemed certain that my old king pins would be completely worn out, thus the reason I bought the full rebuild kit. The axle / king pin assemblies I took out appear to be absolutely fine, there is no play in them, they turn freely, and no visible wear in any area. I do not want to buy the reamer required to size the new king pin bushes so I have not taken them apart. I plan on putting the old assemblies back in (they are a little dirty, but I don't expect anyone to see them). I will be replacing the seals, spacers, and other external bits that came with the kit, just not disassembling the main axle / king pin assembly. Am I missing something, some hidden catastrophe? Before I put it all back together I want to be sure.

 

[DrEntropy]

If (after thoroughly cleaning all the old grease out) you have a good fit, no worries. Usually the lower assembly where the a-arm is bolted thru the pin is the worst part for wear. Water gets to it and the bolt gets rusted to the sleeve and so begins to "eat" an oval hole in the a-arms. As long as the things are greased with regularity (and the rubber cups are intact) they should last indefinitely. You may have lucked out with a car that saw good maintenance practices over its lifetime.

 

[JPSmit]

I replaced the king pins but not the bushes - every report I saw says the bushes rarely wear and, I think I killed at least one kingpin removing it. If I had to redo the car, there are a few thing I would not have touched as I think the were still good - King Pins, wheels bearings are on top of my list. (and the replacements - especially bearings, aren't always as good)

 

[Boggsy64]

Thanks. Both of you confirm what I thought. A couple of weeks ago I had tried to remove the kingpins and quickly realized disassembly was not going to be easy. I couldn't get the upper suspension link trunnion to budge so I stopped and rethought things.... if not broken don't break it trying to fix it!!