VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1937-1945 Floating/Non-floating King Pin Bushings

I am getting ready to replace the king pins and bushings in my '37 Master Coupe (GB). Note: This means it is a straight axle car.

The shop manual states that the bushings are the "floating" design and do not need to be reamed to size. They do note that you need to make sure that the oil hole in the bushing lines up with the grease fittings.

How does the bushing stay in place and not rotate in the steering knuckle if it is a "floating" design?

he "hale dosen't line up but the grove on the back of the bushing must line up with the grease fitting. The grease grove in not centered in the bushing so in other words the is a top and bottom end of the bushing. There is a hole in the grove so when lubricating the grease fills the grove and some finds it wat to the nner part of the ushing. Once you disassemble the king pin in will be self explanitory.

Hi Gene,

That makes senses! The groove allows the grease to get from the hole in the spindle housing to the hole in the bushing regardless of the relative positon of the 2 holes!

Good reminder about top and bottom of the bushing.

Thanks as always!

Hello Rusty,
Be sure to check the movement of the king pin in the axle it self. The spindle fix is the easy part. If the king pin moves in the axle, the axle will need to be removed, reamed and sleeved to fit the new king pin.
Just went through all of this with a local members '37 Chevy Coupe.
I discovered this past week that I will have to remove the Dubonnet Knee Action assemblies from my '37 to have a similar repair made to them as the king pin is "fixed" to them as in a straight axle.

Chevrolet made over sized king pins and bushing for knee-action cars for that reason.
Try to find them to-day

Hi Chevgene,
I am hoping that the company that fixed '37 Chevy Coupes'straight axle, can also fix my knee action in the same manner.
Ream the king pin hole, sleeve it for the new king pin diameter.
What we had found on the straight axle was the upper and lower bushings were perfect but all the play was in the axle. He supplied the new kit so they would have the pin diameter.

Hi Dave and Gene,

Thought I would share some updates on my progress with the kingpins on my '37 Master Coupe.

As expected, Gene's information was right on target. The floating bushings have a groove in the circumference of the OD as well as some spiral grooves in the ID. So grease does get everywhere!

My assemblies came apart very easily. All it took to drive the pins out of the axle was an aluminum punch and a 1 lb. hammer. There is some minor wear on the pins (best I can measure is about .001") and the OD of the bushings is worn maybe .002" to .003". The pin fits very snugly in the axle. The bearings do turn with some roughness.

Based on what I have read from other posts and heard from other VCCA members this is not bad at all. In the 40's & 50's I expect that most people would probably not replace these. Or at best they would replace the bushings only.

In the process of looking for replacement parts I contacted Rare Parts . Dave might want to look there before they begin work on the knee action front end. They offer kits with oversize pins.

In fact it was a little confusing when I first saw the listing for '37 Chevy's. They show 7 kingpin kits. 3 of them are for knee action and 4 are for straight axle. And their application data is very clear about which fits which! For both designs that offer kits with standard pins as well as ones with .005" and .010" oversize pins. The 4th kit for standard axles has standard pins and oversize bushings.

I called them and talked to Leslie about the kit with oversize bushings. She was very knowledgeable and was able to tell me that those bushings were .015" oversize. That confirmed that I could not use that kit. She and I did laugh because she had to reference an older Moog hard copy catalog to determine the OD of the oversize bushings. What really impressed me is that she knew where to go and had it readily available.

Their kits are expensive compared to other sources (~$120) but they may offer a savings compared to drilling, reaming and installing sleeves.

I did find a standard NOS aftermarket McQuay-Norris kit on eBay. It should be here in a few days.

Here is a better link to the Rare Parts Online Catalog . Just select "I don't have an account" and it will let you continue to use the catalog.

And they do have kits with oversize bushings for Knee Action. My oversight.

Great informaton. I placed the company in my favorites for future reference.