MG Midget Forum

Does anyone have a Midget Kingpin reamer for sale, rent, loan? Or know someone who can do the job at a reasonable price?

Peter at Worldwide is your best bet
BillM

Wesley,
I'm at that point in my re-build of my 66'.
I've bought all the parts and am about ready to stsrt looking for the reamer also.
Let me know what you come up with.
I know I've been looking and so far have not found anyone that has one or one for sale.

Some local clubs have bought tools like this for members use.
Call around, maybe you'll get lucky

Peter at Worldwide did mine recently, turnaround in less than a week. I researched exhaustively before I sent them out; I think you will have a hard time finding someone with a reamer. Good luck on your search!

I got one last year and did two sets of spindles, still have 1 set to go. The reaming is easy as pie to do. Do it by hand and not with a power tool like a drill. The most difficult part is actually pressing the old bushings out. It took a lot of pressure to get them to budge, so you will need a hydraulic press, at least I did.. They say that simply replacing the kingpins, but not the bushings, is sufficient, but if you are going to pay for new kingpins and rehab the front suspension, you might as well do it right and replace the bushings and I'd venture to wager that my bushings actually needed to be replaced due to many PO years of no fresh lube being applied.

Just so I have a better idea Jeff. Are you saying that your bushings in the knuckle were good and that the wear was on the pin itself? I am just trying to figure out a what to order. I have some play in the front wheel. It seems as though the bottom bushing or pin has some slop. I want to do the job myself, but this is not my area of expertise. I guess I assumed that the pin being made of steel would not wear as fast as the brass or whatever bushings. Also how much is the reamer needed? I have read that some of the problem is due to slightly crushing the bushing while installing.

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My fuel injected MG Midget Project
Sorry folks, I do not battle the keyboard warriors, or feed the trolls!

Moss UK has the reamer for about $250 plus shipping. You need a hydraulic press to get the old bushings out and the new ones in. Replace the kingpins as well as the bushings.

Send your parts to Peter C at Worldwide and save some money.

Rick

I recommend Peter C as well but I have done the job and just replaced the bottom bushing with no need for a reamer. Definetly need a good press with some specialy made up press tools. I have also replaced a full set of bushings and hand scaped them to fit the pins. Not by choice but because the fellow that said he had the right reamer did not. Used prussian blue for a transfer pigment and a scaper make from a old file.

Kurt.

If you have already bought the bag of parts to rebuild, then keep looking for a machine shop. Having done this a few times, I will go with the exchange units from now on. You really do not save money by doing the legwork yourself.

I should have bought the reamer a few years ago, not sure I have enough cars ahead of me to make it worthwhile anymore.

Local cost to replace the bushings and ream new ones is $110 so your break even is after doing 4 sets of these.

I ordered the king pin overhaul kit that had new bushings and new kingpins as well as the cork and rubber seals, etc. I used the std harbor freight 20 ton press they have on sale from time to time for around 59.99 or 79.99 or whatever. It is the std hand crank hydraulic bottle-jack press. I have used it for wheel bearing races in the hubs also. Jeremy, I am saying that the king pins where badly scored, especially by the steel bushings. The bronze bushings looked good, but the steel ones looked pretty bad, as worn and pitted as that area of the king pins. The bronze ones pressed out easily, as they are thicker and have a larger surface area for the press punch to grab on to. The steel ones seemed to be harder to get to move, but they are thinner, so less of a lip for the punch to press against. These took longer to get out. Replacement bushings went in easily. With the correct piloted reamer they are easy to ream. Takes about a minute per spindle doing by hand. I slid in the lubricated reamer until it got a bit tight, rotated it by hand, taped it a bit as I turned to get it to cut and move deeper along the bushings adding cutting oil now and then and cleaning out the filings and lube to prevent unwanted scoring of the bushings. Getting the bushings in and out takes twice as long as the actual reaming. I had 3 sets of spindles to do, so that prompted me to get the reamer and do myself. This is one of those projects that is on the edge of do-it-yourself or get a pro to do it. Not because it is rocket science, but because the reamer costs a few hundred and you need the press and some punches. I still have 1 set of spindles to do yet, probably a winter project. Come to think of it, I did 1 set the week before Brits in the Ozarks, rebuilt the front end, drove the car that weekend to Fayetteville and back and it was straight and tight and still is. Jeremy, from what you have done with your car in the past, if you could get a reamer, you'd have no problem doing this project at all. Wesley, probably the same, I just have not seen what you have done to your car.

What size are they? There are adjustable hand reamers that should work. Thats how we did it in the shop I worked in before I retired.

There are two sizes. The reamer is a step reamer and is piloted to go in the different sized bushings. This job can be done by a regular machine shop using two reamers if they have their wits about them, but will take much longer to set up so that the bores are concentric. If they get it wrong, the bushings wear quickly.

Early bugeyes with drum brakes need a different sized reamer fyi.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012-11-19 07:27 AM by NOHOME.

I might add that when I did mine,the biggest problem I had was not actually with the king pin bushings, but with the control arm lower outer fulcrum pin. I had to cut mine on each side of the kingpin and extract each side seperately. I used a sawzall with metal cutting blade and a screw extractor to get each side out. It seems the kingpin had siezed onto the fulcrum pin and onto the fulcrum pin pin, so that the king pin could not be removed without sawzall-ing them off. Again, this was easy to do, but something you might need to be prepared for to prevent having the car down too long. I also had a hard time getting replacement lower fulcrum pins to fit/thread back in, as any damage to the control arm can make it nearly impossible to get the threads on both sides of the pin to engage properly. I could not see any damage to mine, but measuring several control arms showed that one of mine was damaged just enough to not allow the fulcrum pin to not thread back in. I had to remove a control arm from another car and use it, instead of the one that was on the car. I then had to work with the slightly bent A-arm to get a pin to thread back into it to put it on the donor car. I had to use a vice and to go thru about 6 different pins to get one to thread into both sides. This was an unexpected pain. Finally, if you are contemplating that any of the front end components are worn out, chances are that all of them are to one degree or another. It is false economy to replace only the tie-rod ends, but not the fulcrum bushings, or the king-pins, but not the bushings, or a shock on only one side, or this bushing or that, but not the steering rack, etc. Do it all, and I mean a complete rebuild of the front end, at the same time, take it to get aligned, and it will be trouble free for another 30+ years. Otherwise, you will be replacing a component every year repeatedly. This includes tires and a good wheel ballancing, and when ballancing the wheels, make sure it is done more than once per wheel, so that you are sure it is done right. Our stock wheels are lug-centric, not hub-centric, and this can cause issues with a wheel ballancer.