Trying to remove my ds upper king pin. Nuts came off no problem but the cap doesnt wasn't to budge. I read that they usually come off easy due to the spring pushing them up. I can only assume now that the spring lost it's spring and i have finally found the annoying clunk in my front end.

I haven't gotten ugly with it yet. I've tried soaking it in pb blaster, hitting with a rubber hammer and some lite prying on the steering arm. Anyone have some tricks to get the cap off?

I saved the passenger side upper when i did the crossover and was wondering if i end up damaging the driver side cap will the passenger side one work on the diver side?

 

If the driver side didn't pop up as you were loosening the nuts, then I'd say your spring probably broke. Or it's so rusted that it won't come loose.

Hit it with some heat...along the edges all the way around. Then maybe use a 2x2 or 2x4 and a 2lb hammer and start pounding. Should eventually come loose.

And if you have cross over steering you should be able to use the regular king pin cap from the pass. side on the drivers side.

 

Mine was stubborn too. Had to do a lot of banging and prying.

 

Do you have the draglink disconnected ? If not, you should as it will relieve any tension on the arm. I tried removing it with it attached, and immediately found it wasn't worth it, trying to do so.

Also.

The first time I had to remove the driver side kingpin upper arm, I had to double nut the studs, remove the studs, and then it came right out.


my thoughts are if you can't move it with the studs in there, you're going to have to double wrench those double nuts. Remove the pb blaster with brake clean and clean the nuts as well before you double nut them. You don't want them to be slippery when double nutting them. Once those studs are out, it will fall off the axle.

Crud built up in / around the studs on my truck and they had to come out.

 

Thanks T I will give that a try if a little banging doesn't work.

 

My suggestion is move to AZ where things don't rust. Seriously those caps are readily available from flea bay, amazon and many other places. If you destroy it coming off, it isn't the end of the world. They are 14 bucks on both Amazon and Ebay...Mark..Mark

 

Mark,

He's referencing the cap on the drivers side, which is actually a cast iron steering arm, and not the stamped steel tin cap on the passenger side.

This is why he's having the issue, as the thickness of the arm gets all funky in the threads and causes it to have a hard time coming off. Mine was SO MUCH EASIER when I disconnected the drag link.

 

It's not rusted mark. At least it doesn't appear to be rusted on.

 

OOPS!! My bad, you'd think that I would know that...Mark

 

Your forgiven, my son.....

"In the name of the father, the ghost and the holy diesel, amen....."

 

A question I have had since I did mine is that I have studs on the drivers side and bolts on the passenger side, is that right? I always thought that someone changed them, but it might have something to do with the more substantial cap on the drivers side. Are they all like that?..Mark

 

Yup bolts on the pass. side, studs and nuts on the drivers side.

 

Thanks, I wondered about that. I went searching for the drivers side cap and it seems to be unobtanium, but I found these, which could be used with a passenger side cap, kind of pricy though. These look pretty neat too, milled out of solid steel with the cap integral...Mark

 

Got the cap off, bushing looks great, spring isn't broken but i don't have calipers to measure it.

 

Right on! What got it loose?

If it's old then more then likely the spring is tired. You replacing the bushing and spring anyways?