Manx Club

Tomorrow im going to put new king pin, link pin and bushings in. The guy at the front end aligment shop told me king pin bushings had to be reamed out for tolerance even if they were new? I have all my new parts and im digging into it. My John Muir book "keep your VW alive" doesnt say anything about reaming them out, BUT looking at the new stuff it doesnt look like the bushings are big enough for the king pins. Is there something im missing? Do they have to be pressed in or reamed out?. Any help would be great. Thanks

Yes they have to be pressed into the carriers and then reamed to fit the king pin.

Yes, they do have to be pressed into the C-shaped carriers first. They will have to be reamed for a precise fit of the kingpins that came with the kit. The plastic washers that came with my Brazilian kit were cheapy-looking, the bronze bushings fit the carriers ok, but were very hard to ream with the VW tool that my buddy used. I machined new washers out of UHMW plastic (Ultra High Molecular Weight) and installed them instead of the ones from the kit. One of the kingpins was a little loose in my left side spindle. It is supposed to be a press-fit. Using a #2 brazing tip on my oxy-acetylene torch, I heated the inside of the bore (where the kingpin fits into) until it was dull red for about 10 seconds and let it cool slowly. This caused the bore to shrink about a few thousanths, thereby creating that "press-fit" when the kingpin was finally installed. Be sure to coat the pins and inside the bores with Anti-Seize before pressing them in. After all the driving I've done, there's no problems with the kingpins. Good luck! John

The VW kingpin bushings need to be reamed to .710 dia. ID. after they are pressed into the carrier. All the king pin bushings I have reamed have machined out very easily and should only take a couple minutes once you get the reamer. I know of a couple people that have purchased reamers from McMaster-Carr.