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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - Honing of king pin bushes?

I have problems finding a workshop that can ream the lower king pin bushes of my drum-braked Mk 1 midget, and have not been active enough to find a piloted reamer with the right dimensions on eBay.

A few days ago someone in an engine workshop offered to let me use their press to press in the new bushes, and suggested that I could then just use a brake cylinder hone and hone the new bushes to the right dimension. Apparently they do something like that with camshaft bearings.

Is that a possibility?

I am very tempted to just re-use the stub axles with the new king pins, but there is just a little play in the lower bushes. Nothing in the upper. But that would probably be stupid when I am doing a complete rebuild with new wishbones and king pins, wouldntt it?

Tore
Tore

you must use a special reamer availible from moss motorsotherwise the busings wont line up
S.A. Jones

Trouble is, Moss donīt have the reamer for the early, drum-braked car. At least not in the UK, as far as I can see. May be in the US?

Tore
Tore

It is possible without the special reamer. I've done it with appropriate size reamers by holding the reamer in a collet and supporting the far bearing with a centre in the tailstock. Worked for me.
David Billington

Should have said the collet was held in the lathe headstock spindle.
David Billington

Moss USA's website shows 1 kingpin reamer for all applications. They don't sell kingpins separitely so I can verify what difference there might be between the drum braked kingpins and the standard items off hand, but I would guess that the only changes that would have been made to he kingpin were in the casting down below. Has anlyone tried putting "disk brake" kingpins in a drum brake swivel axel?
S.A. Jones

SA

The drum brake kingpin has smaller diameter journals.
David Billington

so why not install the disk brake units in the drum brake swivels using disk brake bushings? Would it kill anything to have larger journals? Might make some things stronger and more resistant to wear, not that the old ones were that bad.
S.A. Jones

SA,

I would suspect the bushes are larger and wouldn't fit but am not sure. I do remember they are quite thick walled so whether new bushes could be machined to allow the use of disc brake kingpin in a drum brake stubaxle would require comparing the items.
David Billington

This thread was discussed on 22/05/2009

MG Midget and Sprite Technical index

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