King pin advice and manual transmission swap?

[Gaboo]

Hey everyone, I’ve been working on my 1987 6.9 van and I brought her in for inspection. The kingpins need work. I’m in Worcester MA. I contacted a “spring rebuilder” and they said it’d be over 1000 bucks and probably under 2000. That seem right? If anyone has shop recommendations in the area that’d be sweet too. What is the likely problem? And how often does one need to do frontend work?

Additionally my transmission is slipping when it’s cold out. I need to rev pretty high before it kicks into gear sometimes. What could this be a sign of? I have a c6 tranny and I’ve heard it’s way less efficient than manual. Can you bolt in a different manual transmission?

Thanks for the help in advance


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[MtnHaul]

Without knowing what part of the kingpin assembly it's hard to gauge reasonable cost.

I had a c6 in an '85 F150 that acted like you describe and it failed soon after, about 200k miles on it.

 

[franklin2]

The c6 is pretty tough. Pull the dipstick and look at the color of the fluid. If it's very dark and smells burnt, I would change the fluid. I have had them straighten out after I did this. You can take the inspection cover off the bottom of the flywheel and turn the engine by hand and see if you find a drain plug in the convertor. If you find one, you can pull the tranny pan and drain the convertor and get ALL of the old fluid out. It will take around 13 quarts to get it filled again. If you only pull the pan and change the filter, you then about 4-5 quarts of fluid.

On your axle, most modern axles are using balljoints, what the front wheels turn on when steering. Apparently your van and many large trucks still use king pins, which like it sounds, the front wheels turn on a pin and a bushing when turning the wheel. With a balljoint you simply buy new ones and install them. With kingpins you have to buy the kit and then some machine work is needed to install them and set the clearances in the pins and the bushings. More labor means higher cost.

Here's a link to the kit and what it looks like. https://www.amazon.com/Moog-8574B-K...-----16&vehicleName=1987+Ford+E-350+Econoline

There is a company called Stemco, that makes king pins kits that you do not have to ream (no machine work). I have never used one of these kits, but would be interested if anyone has any experience with them. The Stemco kit for your van is KE350F Here's one on ebay. https://www.ebay.com/itm/STEMCO-QWIK-KIT-KING-PIN-KIT-KE350F-/133601440411

 

[Oledirtypearl86]

I charge 1100 for a set of king pins and an alignment but I have all tje tools but a alignment rack I pay for that usually it takes some heat, swearing. And an impact gun


Spary all your adjustments with pb aka squirrel **** or kroll oil and hot with a hammer a few times

 

[Randy Bush]

Not what I think of those no ream sets. Bushing must not press fit into the spindles. When use to do auto repair we had a honing machine to fit them , much nicer then reamer. Some big truck did took a lot of heat and big hammer to brake them loose from the axle.

 

[Booyah45828]

Get their estimated broken down parts vs labor cost.

I've done kingpins before, sometimes they're done with hand tools, others require a rosebud torch and a 20 ton shop press. I wouldn't recommend doing it yourself unless you have the tools for the worst case scenario.

Reaming the bushings isn't the end of the world so long as you have an adjustable reamer. But I'd choose the no ream kit if it was available for the application. Those kits are pretty easy and made by a few different companies now.