71 F250 4x4 Kingpin Replacement

[dougster]

Noticed my left front wheel was kicked out a bit on the bottom (negative camber). Was worried axle was possibly bent. Lifted wheel off the ground.....looseness appears to be in the kingpin area.

Dana 44 (446F) closed small knuckle front axle.

Appears to be tapered roller bearings for king pin bearings. Aside from pulling the hubs, brakes, backing plates. drag link and tie rods off....doesn't look that bad to do.

Anyone done these before? How big of a job is it? Any tips? Any issue with getting parts?

Right side has no play...should I do it to?

Thanks

[eggman918]

I have done the big knuckle 44's thew are straight forward the only parts I had trouble finding were the shims for the bearing caps the seem to be bone yard parts. At that time bronco Graveyard carried the knuckle seals for the large knuckle but the last time I was on their site I did not see them for the small knuckle you might find them from the old full size Jeep crowd.you need to have some preload on the timken bearings I can't remember how much but as there is no rotational speed doing it by "feel" should get you close enough.You can assemble them with the top cap snug without shims then tighten the lower cap evenly with the axle on stands and use a feeler gauge to get a measurement of the gap, subtract another .005" and divide that by 2 giving you the shim thickness for each cap.
Steve.