Installing kingpins on my 36 Terraplane. Everything was going smooth untill I tried dropping the ball bearings down thru the upper bushing. The problem is the hole down inside the grease fitting hole is too small for the bearing to fit thru.. This is a nos US made kingpin set. I compared the new set with the old ones. everything is the same, same size bearings and bushings but the hole in the new bushing is defentily smaller than the original. Don't know if I need smaller ball bearings or the holes need drilled out?? Anyone ever run across this problem before?
I have replaced several of these on the early Terraplanes. The ball bearings should be placed in position on the top of the king pin with a little chassis grease as "glue" . Then insert the pin into the spindle and up into the top "cap" .
Worked for me. Don't remember what the service manual says for this operation.
Good Luck.
"Ric"
The service manual says to drop them through the top grease fitting hole after the pin is about 3/4 of the way in. In the old ones the hole down inside the grease fitting opening is large enough for the bearings to drop onto the pin but the new ones have a smaller hole. May have to do it the way your talking about, just curious why some are made different.
Definitely do not use smaller balls.
Dan
I don't remember if Hudson & Terraplane use the same king pins. What is the brand and part # of the set you bought? 1934 - 36 HUDSONS use a different set than 1930 - 33 or 1937. Maybe you got the wrong set.
The kingpin set is Elgin. The original tag is not readable but someone has written on it SP0588-o 34-36 Hudson-Terraplane. Everything in the kit is pretty much exactly same as the old original pins except for the smaller hole.
Like I said before, I don't know if Hudson & Terraplane use the same parts but the Elgin part number for 1934 - 36 HUDSON is K1003. I don't have any idea about SP0588-o
Terraplane, 1932-1936. Hudson, 1934-1936.
"Ric"
Well, I got my kingpins installed ok. Instead of taking the new pin all the way out i drove it down to just below the keyway opening for the steering arm and feed the bearings in thru the keyway opening. Worked out pretty good. Interesting side note, While examining everything I noticed of the two new top bushings one hole was a little bigger than the other (still not big enough to feed the ball bearings thru). My guess is the manufactuer of the king pins viewed the openings as just grease passeges and wasn't too concerned about being precise when drilling them out.
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