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Who needs a roof!? (Weather allowing)

While replacing the coil springs, I found that I have a little wobble at the passenger side king pin. I’m a rookie at this…I’m following the other recent post for 37 120 king pins. I’m not sure where to start.

The kingpins are relatively easy compared to the upper pin bushings.

Just make sure you have the correct size reamer/installer tool for the bushings. I bought a vintage one from ebay fairly cheap.

Is the play side to side, or up and down.

If up and down only, t may just be the thrust bearing or need another shim. If side to side then it's probably a worn bushing.

Thanks, Kev. The movement is side to side. I found a couple of videos to watch and things make a bit more sense. It would seem that I likely need new bushings.

Might seem trivial, but I fixed my front dome light switch. The threaded portion came loose from the switch body. The tabs where it was swaged over broke off. My dad is a retired tool and die maker and he made a new threaded piece. It works great.

It really wouldn’t have been a big deal to put in a new generic switch, but I love that Dad and I were able to save this one. Especially, since it matches the style of the two switches for the rear dome light.

Okay…I have a few items for the group..

First, back to my passenger side king pin issue. I definitely have side-to-side play…quite a bit. I also have a LOT of up and down play. You can see the gap above the bearing for the up and down play in the picture below.





Now, I know the concept of removing the king pin, but I’m not sure how to know which direction the locking pin needs to come out. Also, it appears that the locking pin just needs to be “tapped” out. Is that right? Is it on a taper so that it can only go one direction? How hard of a “tap” should it take to back the locking pin out? Looking for general guidance on this one. It’s all new to me, but I’m game for learning how to do it.

This got me looking at my drivers side again. I do have very slight, but perceptible side to side movement on it, but no up and down play.

Next, I want to get some thoughts on how the car shifts from 1st to 2nd, When the car is cold, it shifts great. After things warm up, shifting from 1st to 2nd is a bit challenging as it isn’t syncing up very well. I have to shift VERY slowly and kind of feather it in. But, shifting from 3rd to 2nd is very smooth. A couple of folks have mentioned the possibility of using a heavier gear oil. I’m not 100% sure what is in it now, but I have 90W GL1 on hand that was recommended on this site. Thoughts?

On the transmission, there was a prior post from Ross explaining that he had a car in that he was sure had a toasted transmission, and after draining out whatever fluid was in there and replacing it with GL1-90W and all was well again. So I would try that first and see what happens.

On the king pin, the lock pin ends up being a bit tapered from being hammered in and being mushroomed on one end.

So it needs to removed from the opposite side with a drift. It really a two minute operation.

The king pin is not tapered. But you'll need to pop off one of the end caps. Usually you can stab it through the middle with a screwdriver or an awl and the pry off the cap.

Then you drive the king pin through, which will pop off the other end cap. Usually easier to pop off the top cap and drive the king pin down and out the bottom.

The end caps are just like core plugs (freeze plugs), so they are replaced, not reused. I found it easier to seat the new bottom end plug on the spindle, then assemble everything. That way the bottom plug keeps the pin from falling through until you are able to seat the lock pin.

On my two ('37 115c and '40 110), I had both locking pins and bolts respectively (the '40 had one damned hard life before I bought it). Which side of the pin to whack is pretty obvious when you see both sides--the side they're inserted from is usually deformed, and the other, not so much. The come out pretty quickly with a punch and ball peen hammer and a sharp hit. Once you've got them a bit loose they may go flying.

My '37 had a lighter weight oil in the trans when I bought it back in '19 and I changed it out late the next year. The GL1 that I bought at NAPA was quite a bit heavier than whatever was in there previously. Shifting was (is) definitely smoother.

Now that I have new coil springs in the front, I’m needing to get new rear leaf springs. I’m looking for sources. I can’t find anyone who has prints for my 138CD. The springs are different from the 120CD.

A1 Shock said they can make them if I send in an original. They quoted $900 for the pair.

After that, Eaton Detroit Spring also said they can make them if I send in an original. The quoted $550 each ($1100/pr).

So…my questions:

1) Does anyone have experience with A1 Shock and Eaton Detroit. From what I’ve found, both seem to be very good companies, so I’m really more interested in personal experiences or if you would put one ahead of the other.

2) Does anyone know if any other sources. I’d love to find someone who has the prints, but I think that is unlikely.

Lastly, I did check with Max Merritt and Kanter. Max Merritt referred me to Eaton Detroit. Kanter just said that they didn’t have a supplier for the leaf springs.

I’m not wanting to take the car out of service during the nice fall driving season. So right now, I’m looking at waiting until December or January to pull the springs to send to either A1 Shock or Eaton Detroit.

Good Afternoon. We had new rear springs for our 1949 four Door Deluxe 288 made by Eaton and they fit perfectly when they arrived. They have been on the car for about eight years and have been just fine. Car sits as it should and they do NOT squeak! Ernie in Arizona.