Measuring Kingpin End Play

[PeterPortugal]

Guys,

There are lots of posts on kingpins and I have used these to great effect when replacing mine.

However, I could not find anything on how to actually measure the end play of the kingpin in its final assembled state.

My issue is that I have reassembled the kingpin components using the thickest supplied washer at the bottom of the assembly. I could torque the bottom nut to 9mkp without any binding.

I can't feel any obvious play in the assembly so I think I might have been lucky in order to reach this condition without having to machine a washer. Should I be happy with this?

I wanted to measure the endplay but wasn't entirely sure of the process. Is it just a case of putting a dial indicator on the upper part of the assembly and pushing on the bottom?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Regards

Peter

[mbzse]

.../... measure the endplay but wasn't entirely sure of the process. Is it just a case of putting a dial indicator on the upper part of the assembly and pushing on the bottom?

Yes certainly, pinch the sleeve part (6) in a vice, and then push the spindle part up and down to measure the play.

An essential matter is to get the upper and lower knuckles of the king pin to be parallel, once you pinch the lower nut (28) tight. They can easily twist, up vs down.
One way to make it visible is to insert rods 40-50cm long into the knuckle holes, and eyeball that the rods run parallel.

[PeterPortugal]

Mbzse - Thank you for your response on carrying out the measuring.

I temporarily fitted the king pin back into the control arms to tighten the nut to ensure the top and bottom components remained parallel.

Was this bad practice? Could I have twisted these components?