Adjustable King PIn Bearings Instead of Caster Bushes Q

[Surfin Alec]

Just put in some 30mm coil spacers on top of the OME 2" coils. Now the steering is twitchy and needs some caster correction.

The local wheel alignment place rekons the adjustable king pin bearings (offset) are a better option that the caster bushes.

Has anyone tried / used them? How many degrees are they good for (I forgot to ask)? Any real world experiences?

The plus side from what I can gather if they work will be able to retain factory bushes and they adjust camber as well.

Alec

[chops]

offset bearings will only fix your camber.. won't change the caster

[chunderlicious]

i think the guy means put them on 90 degrees to what they should be to rotate the knuckle slightly.....

[udm]

Don't, all they do is wreck seals, etc.

[bazooked]

u need to get a wheel alignment done first to see what degree bearing u need, and from memory they are an offsett bearingsmaller than standard and will do castor and camber.

[Surfin Alec]

Don't, all they do is wreck seals, etc.

Just trying to get my head around them with the pros and cons, do they wreck seals from experience and if so which ones? I can imagine them reaking a bit of havoc with the axel seals though and they are bad enough to keep in tact.

[Roctoy]

this is a pair i have on the table at home for a hilux, i was given them when i got a heap of other stuff, i can't work em out either, i would have thought you needed 2 on each side (top and bottom) knid if like rotating the knuckle slightly.

[chunderlicious]

they only do one on some of them hence the earlier comment on ruining seals.

[sootygu]

Where are the available from and approx what price.

Tried to find these a couple of years ago for a GU but had no luck.

[RoldIT]

Where are the available from and approx what price.

Tried to find these a couple of years ago for a GU but had no luck.

Think you'll find GU can get offset kingpins. I think available from snakeracing.com.au if I recall correctly.

[bazzle]

Pro Align in Narellin

BAzzle

[JBE]

Hi Alec

Is your truck is permanent 4wd? I think you risk runing into all sorts of problems with the oil seals if you you use offset kingpins to adjust the castor. I guess, you'll need at least 2 deg castor correction which is quite a lot if you use kingpins. I also think offset kingpins of whatever design are not good for the kingpin bearings as the dislodge them.
Did you get your castor measured with your current setup? If not, I think it's a good idea to do this to have a starting point.

BTW, adjusting toe in to neutral made a huge difefrence for my truck.

My GQ has approx 0 deg castor with 3deg offset bushes and neutral toe in. It drives well, but I have to keep my hands on the wheel.

Hope that helps
Joachim



I used a .75 deg offset kingpin to adjust the camber

[Surfin Alec]

Yes its constant 4wd and I havent had a wheel align since I installed the 30mm coil spacers. It was OK (a bit twitchy) before the coil spacers but now its quite noticeable and its the wifes daily driver.

Guess I'm off to have the caster checked...then some bushes.

Alec