While working on the wiped out king pin on my yellow Sprite I stumbled
on the cause.
The nut on the cotter peg fell off, the cotter was almost all the way
out. This would explain the clunk in the front end.
And I know I rebuilt that front end maybe 5 or 6 years ago.
Well greased and not a whole lot of miles on it. Ok hard miles but now I
know why.
So where did that nut go? Better check your nuts, it could cause
premature king pin wear.
And now for the tech tip on king pins.
Last summer while assembling my blue sprite, Kevin and I went nuts
trying to make a cork gasket for the bottom of the pins. I have a
couple of king pin sets in various stages of missing parts. The gaskets
all seem to be missing. So we fumbled with "O" rings, cut up stuff, and
finally made one out of something in the garage.
Well tonight I had the same problem, no cork gaskets. So I opened up a
cabinet looking for "whatever" and out falls a piece of pipe insulation.
I use this on the top bows so they don't rattle when in the stowed
position. I looked at it, cut a few 1/8" pieces off and now I have
gaskets for my king pins. Neopreme, it has to be better than cork.
Perfect outside diameter and the correct size hole in the middle.
These gaskets keep the road grit out, and the cork seems to go away real
fast. I'll let you know how long pipe insulation lasts.
--
Frank Clarici
Toms River, NJ
Back up to too many sprites again.
http://www.exit109.com/~spritenut/
|