Not to be confused with a fifth wheel king pin, the steer axle king pin is a component designed to attach the front wheel spindles onto the front steering axle, allowing the axle to rotate. Clay Zimmerman, director of sales for Steer King, talks about steer axle king pin service and replacement, the reasons for replacement, and products available to help increase vehicle uptime when it comes to servicing steer axle king pins.
Transcription of interview:
Erica Schueller, Fleet Maintenance: Hello and welcome to VSP News: Uptime Update. I am your host Erica Schueller, Editor-in-Chief of Fleet Maintenance magazine, covering all maintenance, all vehicle classes, all management, all the time.
Not to be confused with a fifth wheel king pin, the steer axle king pin is a component designed to attach the front wheel spindles onto the front steering axle, allowing the axle to rotate.
While preventive maintenance can help extend the life of a steer axle king pin, it sometimes needs to be replaced.
I talked with Clay Zimmerman, director of sales for Steer King, about steer axle king pin service and replacement. We first discussed the primary reasons for steer axle king pin replacement.
Clay Zimmerman, Steer King: There are a number of variables involved, there’s not one common answer. You’ve got load, road, operational conditions … but probably the most important aspect in what determines replacement is lubrication and maintenance that goes into the vehicle.
Steer axle king pins love grease, they love lubrication. A lack of lubrication is what causes problem and units to be replaced.
Schueller, Fleet Maintenance: The removal and installation of king pins on steer axles can be a challenge for technicians.
King pins can be stubborn to uninstall and install because the tolerances are so tight. If something is out of round or the wrong size – even slightly – it can cause extra vehicle downtime, and even require tearing down and reinstalling the king pin multiple times.
Zimmerman talks about these challenges.
Zimmerman, Steer King: Some of the additional challenges in installation: there’s a seal involved between the spindle and the axle. That’s a one-directional seal. If that happens to put in incorrectly you’ll get an air lock when you go to grease it.
Also, the shimming process, to make sure you’ve got a good fit between the spindle and the axle. Those are some of the key challenges.
Schueller, Fleet Maintenance: There are installation kits available that allow for easier installation of steer axle king pins. How do these kits save time and frustrations on king pin installation? Zimmerman shares more.
Zimmerman, Steer King: Industry standard is to random sample parts, to make sure they’re to spec. Obviously, there’s an opportunity for some bad actors to get involved there. One of the things that Steer King does is, we make individually, every pin and bushing to make sure it is to the exact spec, so that when a customer puts it in, it does fit.
If it doesn’t fit, it’s because there’s a problem with the spindle bar or the axle, and that’s something that also has to be watched very closely during the installation.
The one thing we’ve removed from the situation is, our seal – to keep the contaminates out and the grease in – is bidirectional, meaning you can’t put it in wrong. You don’t have worry about getting an air lock in the installation.
Schueller, Fleet Maintenance: If you’d like more information on steer axle king pin replacement, check out the link below.
That’s it for this week’s episode. Thank you for tuning in to VSP News Uptime Update, I’m your host Erica Schueller.
Until our next broadcast, keep up with this, and other industry topics, by visiting us online at https://www.vehicleservicepros.com/ .
Find more information on steer axle king pin replacement.
