Dear Ernest,
I assume you are trying to get the pins out while the lower a-arms are
still attached to the car. That is pretty tough. The question is whether
it is necessary to remove them at all. I assume your front end is worn.
If so, a full reconditioning would include new or reconditioned a-arms
(the threads in the old ones are almost surely worn if the rest of the
front end is). It will also include new king pins. You may presently
think that I am being too pessimistic, but you are wrong. So why go nuts
trying to separate the king pins that you are going to throw away from the
a-arms that are going to have to be reconditioned or replaced? If you are
going to send the a-arms to someplace like Apple Hydraulic, call them and
ask if it is ok to leave the kingpins attached. They are going to melt
out the ends of the a-arms anyway, so they probably don't care.
If you feel you must hammer out the pins, remove the assemblies from the
car if you have not already. If hammering still doesn't work, drill out
the pins, which will spoil the king pins and fulcrum pins, but you were
going to replace them anyway. Then you will likely discover that the
fulcrum pins are impossible to unscrew from the assembly even with the
locking pins out. Then send them off to Apple Hydraulic or replace them
as above.
An alternative approach is to hacksaw the whole mess apart, *then* throw
everything away and replace it.
The main point, lest it be lost, is that you are going to have to replace
all the parts you are separating, so why separate them?
No wonder this is such a fascinating hobby! It builds character along
with cars.
Ray Gibbons Dept. of Molecular Physiology & Biophysics
Univ. of Vermont College of Medicine, Burlington, VT
gibbons@northpole.med.uvm.edu (802) 656-8910
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