King pin eye faces on stub and beam axles.

[Dennis Nicholas]

The bearing faces of the stub axle and beam axle need to be flat and square to the king pins.  Due to king pin wear/wobble over years these faces become unequally worn.  They should be resurfaced. Probably only a couple or so thou metal removal involved.  What tool to be used??  I am told a spotface cutter on a pilot is the item required. The A7 companion mentions a D cutter. The cutter is in the form of a cylinder with cutting teeth on one face and it has a hole in the middle through which a pilot fits with the cutter being able to be fixed to the pilot.  This allows the cutter to be put between the stub axle eyes then the pilot to be put through to be running in the bushes.  I found such a pilot/cutter arrangement but pilot alone was in region of £70 and cutter £130ish!!!!!!!!  
Does anyone know of a cheaper version suitable for A7verners?

A local elderly engineer has made me an alternative version......a cylinder of metal 1.2685' dia. with 5/8" hole and rod of 5/8' steel.  The cylinder is put in place and the rod pushed through the king pin bushes and cylinder and the cylinder held onto the rod by a grub screw. The faces of the cylinder are parallel and square to the pilot rod.  Grinding paste is put on the cylinder face and using a slow speed hand drill the cylinder pulled against the axle face to grind away a small amount and so square up and clean up the bearing surfaces.    Simples -  and cost £12 for him to make for me.  I will shortly be trying this method.


Dennis

[Chris KC]

I'm bracing myself for howls of protest from those as know better, but I cleaned mine up quite nicely with a household tap seat cutter from Wickes. It even miraculously came with the right screw thread to bolt directly on the end of an old kingpin, which thus formed the pilot and kept it square. Perfect, no; but a heck of a lot better than it was before and for barely a fiver.

The question of washers occasionally vexes me too, I too have heard they should be hardened but suspect many aren't. This is a part of the car which ought to be regularly inspected anyhow, and vertical slop is a definite no-no. I wouldn't advocate any soft material.

[Dennis Nicholas]

Chris KC   thanks for that will look into tap seat cutter.  What did you use for thrust washers?  Have seen some oilite available 21/32 ID (1/64 bigger than 5/8 king pin) X 1 1/4" (can turn this down to 1 1/8" required) but only 3/32" thick...perhaps 2 together?
Bull Motif supply oilite for A30/35......the man on the phone said brass!! dimensions given were 5/8 X 1 1/4" X 4mm
Part No: ZFS016

Oilite Washer(special washer fits on king pin shaft)
£2.95
 That seems to equate to the oilite manufacturers AW112002 21/32" X 1 1/4" X 3/32" @ £2.16 from Bearingboys. 
Or even £1.28 from "Get Your Bearings"   £6.34 including vat and delivery 1st post.  So 4 of them at £10.94

Dennis

[Alan]

I don't think oilite is something I'd choose for this application. At least one of our suppliers sells the correct hardened washers. I'd use those if I were you. I think they are cheaper as well.

[Steve Jones]

I don't think oilite is something I'd choose for this application. At least one of our suppliers sells the correct hardened washers. I'd use those if I were you. I think they are cheaper as well.

I've used the hardened steel washers from our suppliers for more years than I can remember. Never had any sort of problem with them. My only issue is that I often find they're re-usable so when I buy a king pin kit the supplied washers go into my stock. I recall that I had that many at one point that when one of the suppliers was down on stock, I let him have some of my excess back to help him along!

Is it just me or is there a bit of 're-inventing of the wheel' going on at the moment?

Steve

[Chris KC]

Likewise I'd use the hardened steel ones from Seven Workshop etc. assuming they are available. Depending on the state of your axle you might find you need to slip in another washer to take up end clearance, in this case I'd use any steel washer rather than accept a sloppy joint. You might well eventually find yourself with a pile of whatever washers you can find trying to make up the right thickness.

On the tap cutter, do please proceed with care, it will do quite a reasonable job of clean-up if used thoughtfully and patiently. There are doubtless better ways from an engineering viewpoint! I personally prefer to do anything I can myself and for jolly good reasons, but if you have any doubts hand it over to a pro.

Steve, at least a lot of overthink / overspend, in my humble opinion. We are all guilty at times but I sense the movement is, well, moving...

[Alan]

I measure the various components before assembly and work out any extra shimming required. That goes under the top hat bush as it's pressed into position.
I'm going to go get a tap seat cutter next time I'm shopping. It's a really good idea.

[Dennis Nicholas]

Chris KC   thanks for that will look into tap seat cutter.  What did you use for thrust washers?  Have seen some oilite available 21/32 ID (1/64 bigger than 5/8 king pin) X 1 1/4" (can turn this down to 1 1/8" required) but only 3/32" thick...perhaps 2 together?
Bull Motif supply oilite for A30/35......the man on the phone said brass!! dimensions given were 5/8 X 1 1/4" X 4mm
Part No: ZFS016

Oilite Washer(special washer fits on king pin shaft)
£2.95
 That seems to equate to the oilite manufacturers AW112002 21/32" X 1 1/4" X 3/32" @ £2.16 from Bearingboys. 
Or even £1.28 from "Get Your Bearings"   £6.34 including vat and delivery 1st post.  So 4 of them at £10.94

Dennis

I don't think oilite is something I'd choose for this application. At least one of our suppliers sells the correct hardened washers. I'd use those if I were you. I think they are cheaper as well.

I don't think oilite is something I'd choose for this application. At least one of our suppliers sells the correct hardened washers. I'd use those if I were you. I think they are cheaper as well.

I've used the hardened steel washers from our suppliers for more years than I can remember. Never had any sort of problem with them. My only issue is that I often find they're re-usable so when I buy a king pin kit the supplied washers go into my stock. I recall that I had that many at one point that when one of the suppliers was down on stock, I let him have some of my excess back to help him along!

Is it just me or is there a bit of 're-inventing of the wheel' going on at the moment?

Steve

Would someone please let me know which supplier has the BIG 7 SIZE thrust washers - 5/8 inch king pins. Robin Taylor the big 7 sec would also like to know.

Dennis

[Jeff Taylor]

Chris KC   thanks for that will look into tap seat cutter.  What did you use for thrust washers?  Have seen some oilite available 21/32 ID (1/64 bigger than 5/8 king pin) X 1 1/4" (can turn this down to 1 1/8" required) but only 3/32" thick...perhaps 2 together?
Bull Motif supply oilite for A30/35......the man on the phone said brass!! dimensions given were 5/8 X 1 1/4" X 4mm
Part No: ZFS016

Oilite Washer(special washer fits on king pin shaft)
£2.95
 That seems to equate to the oilite manufacturers AW112002 21/32" X 1 1/4" X 3/32" @ £2.16 from Bearingboys. 
Or even £1.28 from "Get Your Bearings"   £6.34 including vat and delivery 1st post.  So 4 of them at £10.94

Dennis

I don't think oilite is something I'd choose for this application. At least one of our suppliers sells the correct hardened washers. I'd use those if I were you. I think they are cheaper as well.

I don't think oilite is something I'd choose for this application. At least one of our suppliers sells the correct hardened washers. I'd use those if I were you. I think they are cheaper as well.

I've used the hardened steel washers from our suppliers for more years than I can remember. Never had any sort of problem with them. My only issue is that I often find they're re-usable so when I buy a king pin kit the supplied washers go into my stock. I recall that I had that many at one point that when one of the suppliers was down on stock, I let him have some of my excess back to help him along!

Is it just me or is there a bit of 're-inventing of the wheel' going on at the moment?

Steve

Would someone please let me know which supplier has the BIG 7 SIZE thrust washers - 5/8 inch king pins. Robin Taylor the big 7 sec would also like to know.

Dennis

Some in the MG TA / TB / TC  world are replacing the original bronze thrust washers in their 3/4 inch king pins with Torrington needle thrust bearings and thrust washers made of hardened and polished spring steel.

Simply Bearings also stock these bearings and washers in I/D = 5/8" O/D = 1.125" - the washers are available in 30, 60 and 92 thou thickness - TRA1018, TRB1018 and TRC1018. 

Apparently exchange MGB stub axles are now offered either with the original bronze thrust washers or with the Torrington thrust bearing package replacing the bronze thrust washers.

[Chris KC]

I can't think of an earthly reason to do this to an Austin Seven - a steel washer and a bit of grease now and then works just fine. And I very definitely would not remove metal from the axle stub to accommodate a bearing, however slim.