On 09-12-97 Jeff Edmonson wrote to Chris Biltcliffe... 
 JE> z>You mean replacing the king pins, or replacing the coils?  My 
 JE> z>brother's got a '75 Ford 1-ton van, which has got basically the 
 JE>  > same front suspension as your 'battle wagon' only heavier. 
 JE>  > He replaced the king pins, because they were practically siezed 
 JE>  > when he got the van, but he's never done anything with the coils. 
 JE>  > Does your's need work or something? 
 JE>  
 JE> Or something ;-) 
Kneel down next to a front wheel; put your thumbs at 12:00, grip 
the tire really firmly, and with the weight of your chest, heave 
back, trying to yank the top of the tire outwards.  If the pins 
are shot, you will feel the wheel move a bit, 'thunk'.  If you 
feel that, pop the grease cup, and put your thumb on the end 
of the axle, touching the flange for the cup, and yank with one 
hand to *feel* if the bearing is loose. 
 
If the bearing is loose, jack the i-beam to get the tire off 
the ground, and spread a matchead size gob of grease between 
your thumb and forefinger.  Snif. Do it look black and smell 
burnt? wash in gas, [better yet kerosene or mineral spirits] 
and repack the bearing.  while you got the wheel off, shake 
the axle; if the end of the spindle goes up/down more than a 
couple millimeters, I'd think about doing the pins & busings. 
 PS: dont use NAPA; press industrial lubrilite bushings. 
 
If that is ok, put each hand at 9:00 and 3:00 and try to shake 
to see if the tie rod ends have any slack. 
 
Oh yeah. back when they wrote the 'MOTOR' manual on these rigs, 
hardly anyone had a vice grip. skip book, and open the grips 
way up to grab the OD on the grease cup, and wiggle it free as 
you like to come out easy. ;^) 
 
My experience has been that if the pins are shot, as you turn on 
a curve, the weight shifts cause the camber on the outside wheel 
to flip to the outer limit of the bushing play, and the steering 
gets tricky.  but going straight on a smooth road has no problem. 
 
If the tie rods are bad, the shimmy usually developed on these 
old rigs around 45, especially after a pothole; if you can get 
it up to 60 without the shakes, I would bet you got a tire that 
is badly out of balance, or as is often the case on radials, out 
of *round* and thus, also out of balance. 
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