66 Sprite Kingpins

[MCS]

Went for a 30 minute drive yesterday, longest in 26 years, last long drive was when I was 16. Had her up to 65mph,felt like a 100 mph. I noticed some vibration in the front end. I found 1.0 mm of play in the kingpins (bottom). Looking in the Moss cat (p34) there is a swivel pin repair kit, is this all I need. Will I need a reamer to fit new bushings?
Thanks Phil

 

[blkcorvair]

Yes you have to ream new bushings. But generally the king pin wears before the bushings. Go figure. Sure its not the lower fulcrum giving you all that movement?

 

[Billm]

If you do need to ream new bushings- I have a reamer that you can borrow, but I have never seen the bushings wear, as blkcorvair says- it is always the pin.
Bill

 

[Sportsdoc]

I would not be convinced the kingpins are bad. One millimeter is virtually undetectable. I would look at the bearings first. You could pull the hubs and then really assess the swivel/king pin apparatus along with the lower fulcrum.

 

[Bugeye58]

One millimeter is virtually undetectable.

Huh?? I can drive a train through 1mm.
Jeff

 

[Sportsdoc]

Wow, that must be a very tiny train....

 

[MCS]

Thanks for the reply
I would be very happy if only the pins need to be replaced. The bearings are new and no movement there. Thanks Bill for the offer, I guess I will need to take it all apart. Will wait for a cold rainy day, having too much fun driving.
Now my next problem, spent 125.00 on a rebuilt wiper motor from my local guy. There seems to be a short somewhere and the dam thing will not work. The local shop told me I am out of luck because the rebuild shop went bankrupt. So now I need to look for a wiper motor.
Anybody have one for a 1966 Sprite.
Phil

 

[Bugeye58]

Wow, that must be a very tiny train....

Not really. In my line of work I regularly deal in microns, so 1mm of play is huge! I would think that 0.1mm would be about the max. allowable play in a kingpin.
Jeff

 

[blkcorvair]

I see why they may have went bankrupt

 

[Sportsdoc]

Please tell me you don't seriously think you can manually detect 0.1 mm of play in the kingpin?

 

[Bugeye58]

Sure can. It should be detectable as movement, and worth measuring. 0.1mm is nearly .004", and you should be able to feel that.
Jeff

 

[racingenglishcars]

I have mentioned before, and will certainly many times again.
ALWAYS replace the bushings.
What happens is that dirt gets forced into the softer bushing and remains. It then works like sandpaper on the kingpin. Thus kingpin wear. A new kingpin will wear also, even faster than the old one since it's starting WITH dirt in the bushings.
For this reason, replace bushings too and keep these things lubed regularly!