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Is Miller the only company that made tools for our front suspension ? I have a wanted ad and don't want to cut myself short on options. I will be grateful for any information.

I am about to try to rebuild the front end on my 1954 Plymouth Suburban. I noticed in the manual that several "special" tools were mentioned. Are they REQUIRED? If so, are they available? Does anybody have a video of this process or a series of pictures with do's and don'ts or recommendations?

I am replacing my king pins on my '49 Woodie. I knew it was coming because I wanted to get it aligned a couple years ago and the guy told me I had to do the king pins for him to do an accurate job. last year I started to get a good amount of vibration at about 70 MPH, so, now that our Governor has again shuttered Ca., I figure i have plenty of time on my hands. This does not look extremely hard, but, the shop that was going to do the pressing and reaming for me is out because the guy who does this kind of work is "down for the count" according to his son, and thinks he'll be out for several weeks. I have located a machinist here on the central coast who is willing to do the job, but is not really a car guy. I need to disassemble the king pins from the knuckles so he can "see what we are dealing with". My first problem is removing the lock pins so i can get the king pins out. It looks like they are threaded, but i think this is only because they are peened over. One side has the little wedge missing, the other is essentially flush with the hole. I assume i should be able to pound these out. I also assume that the fully round side is the side that comes out first, so I should pound on the wedged side to push the pin out. Judging from the amount of dirt, grease and crud, I am not sure the front end of this car has even been apart. The pins do not appear to want to budge. But I wanted to make sure i was not doing anything drastically wrong before really getting serious. Any suggestions on removing the lock pins is appreciated. Once i get the pins out, I think my machinist will press out the bushings and install the new ones and ream them. I should be able to take it from there.

I am replacing the king pins in my '49 Woodie. I am not disassembling the A-Arms or replacing the bushings/seals. While cleaning the lower A-Arm, I might have allowed the pivot bar to rotate. I am not sure, but I used a small guage wire through the pivot bar to attach to the A-Arm to maintain the orientation and one came off during the cleaning/painting process. My manual has the attached diagram showing the correct positioning of the pivot to the A-Arm. I have a couple laser tools that I am using try to check that my readings are as desired from the layout. I have a couple problems. First, the actual width of my A-Arm (measurement "A" in the diagram), which the diagram shows should be 11 9/16 inches is actually 11 3/4 inches, so 3/16 off. Second, trying to get measurement B, which looks like the key measure to determine the correct position of the pivot, can be either 2 13/64 or 2 8/64. I can not land exactly on the measurement. I think the goal of this is to get the pivot bar centered as much as possible between the forks of the A-Arm. In other words, to align the center of the pivot bar to exactly the halfway point of measurement A. Is that correct? would that mean that measurement "B" (shown here to be 2 5/32) should simply be made to be as equal as possible on both sides of the A-Arm? I am assuming if this is off, it might affect the Caster? If that is the case, and i can not get these to be exactly where the manual says they should be, I probably want to err of the side of moving the lower A-Arm to the front, supplying a bit more positive caster?

These " wedges " were under the bolts on the LCA pivot bar. I thought I took more photos during disassembaly but this one is the best view. WHERE DO THEY GO ? ( oh and what are they for ? ) None of my parts , or shop books show or mention them. I believe they were on the driver side, rear set of bolts, but cannot recall. I was too concerned that day about the coil springs killing me. :-) Thanks ! Clay

I found these INSIDE the frame at the front end. One on EACH side. Just loose laying in mud and sludge. matching set, each side???? Couldn't be an accidental drop from and old repair. Not TWICE ! Came loose from their appointed duty ??? But WHAT ? Any thoughts folks?? Clay

Hey Guys, Im in the process of doing the diesel swap into my '52 B3b 1/2 ton and I've been fiddling with the front suspension. Its all torn down and i got new leaf springs from St. Louis Spring. Now im in the process of collecting the necessary parts to put it all back together when the time comes, king pins, shackles, tie rod ends, drag link, etc. This got the gears turning in the old brain... since the diesel is heavier (750 lbs dry) than the flat head 6, would i be better sourcing a 1 ton or 1-1/2 ton front axle and spindles? Also would it be a good idea to get a steering box from one of those trucks in order to provide greater mechanical advantage when turning? Im not familiar with the heavier spec trucks so any help would be greatly appreciated. I decided to make this a separate thread instead of in bedding it in my "1952 B3b with Cummins 4bt" so that people can search for it in the future easier and hopefully it will help them out. Thanks, -Chris