Ignorance is not bliss!!

[smfulle]

I hope that someone can learn from my ignorance. This is my first truck ever, of any vintage and ever since I got it a couple of years ago it has been a beast to steer, really a workout every time I would get in it. I thought it was due to the wide radial tires that I am running and that were on the truck when I got it.

This daily workout made me think that I needed to add power steering. A few weeks ago I jacked my truck up to crawl under it and ponder what was required to upgrade to power steering. While the truck was off the ground I tried to move the wheels right to left and could only do it with great effort. Further investigation showed that the king pins were almost totally frozen up and it was pretty amazing that I could steer the truck at all.

I dropped the axle and took it to a machine shop to get the king pins pressed out and the machinist told me that I probably shouldn’t bother since the axle was bent. Pretty smart on my part, driving around with a bent axle and near frozen king pins!

Got a new/used axle with good king pins installed, alignment/toe-in checked and now it drives like a whole new vehicle. I can steer with one hand and will save the hundreds of dollars I would have spent on the power steering upgrade for some other project on my truck.

Stan

 

[Bobby 57]

I've had bad luck in the past with seized king pins too. Oh i'll grease them the next time and pretty soon i just forgot.And went down the same road as you.My current project had seized king pins but it sat for 10 years before i started working on it.Keep up with the maintenance and the fix should last a good long time.
Bobby

 

[vwnate1]

Stiff Steering

When faced with stiff steering , one should always grease everything first , if any of the Zerks won't take the grease , heat it slightly with a Plumber's Propane torch .

The steering box too tends to leak dry and it needs GEAR OIL , never grease in there .