A question about an older vehicle with a king-pin style of front end geometry.
Is it reasonable to judge the wear on the king-pin & bearings by jacking the front end off the ground and vigorously trying to tilt the wheel in camber, while watching and listening for excess play?
I'm not asking for an exact test, just a distinction between "it's good enough for now" versus "it's really time to pull this whole thing apart."
Ed
Shaking the wheel as you describe is the way I used to do it. To do it properly, you should snug up the wheel bearings, but for a gross good/bad test you really don't need to. What works best is to have someone else shake the wheel while you watch the joints for side play. If you can see any, it's bad.
I can't think of a better test without disassembling, personally...
make sure your wheel bearings are tight as well, and if you do detect some play make sure you can see whether it's the kingpin itself or the upper outer bushings (got bit by that one once - kingpins were fine but upper outers were so worn that I was getting play *there* - yes, the threaded steel kind...)
nate
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