King pin felt washer orientation

[Magoo2]

Just rebuilding front end of 31CCPU. What is the orientation of the felt washer and stamped cap on the bottom support? Does the stamped cap that surrounds the felt washer have the open side facing up or down. The new bottom bushings are longer than the support they are pressed into. Should the bushing protrude on the top or bottom of the support? They protrude about 1/16”.

[GRutter]

Open side faces down on the thrust bearing and on the cupped washer.

The bottom bushings in the new spindle bolt kits are too long, as you discovered.
If it extends out of the bottom of the spindle it will not interfere with you getting the spindle back on the axle.

[rotorwrench]

Like a lot of things on the reproduction market these days, there is room to find problems with just about any part you get. Some of the felt cups have too tall a rim for the felt and some felts are a bit too thick to easily fit between the spindle lower support and axle. The felt has to be against the lower face of the axle with the retainer cup holding it in that position from below.

The bushing protrusion is a new one on me but then my model A has different spindles so I've not run into that one. If it stands proud on the upper surface then it could create problems with the fit of the felt dust washer & retainer. The cut away diagrams I have in the "The Ford Model A as Henry Built It" shows the bushing to be flush with both upper an lower surfaces of the lower king pin support. It may be able to protrude from the bottom as long as it doesn't interfere with the brake backing plate.

[GRutter]

If rotorwrench is correct in the orientation of the felt and washer, my apologies.

I have always placed the cupped washer facing down and the felt against the spindle, so it could not collect water. Also, as it is grease fittings are in the spindle, it would make sense that the felt would be next to the spindle, not the axle.

Perhaps other members could advise.

[ryanheacox]

I installed mine the way rotorwrench described and I thought I had them backwards. Maybe not?



I did have to reuse the old cups though, the new ones were too thick. I think Les Andrews book recommends leaving them out entirely

[rotorwrench]

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I've heard that some vendors have the cups that are the correct dimension but I don't know. Bratton's was mentioned to have them. The felt gets compressed so much and should be permiated with grease to a point that it won't hold any water. Ford hadn't figured out yet that the thrust bearing should be placed in this area with the dust seal up on top of the pin. They eventually changed them to be that way in the V8 era. Using the king pin as part of the brake actuating system was likely the reason that they did it that way on the model As. The way it was initially done, it put a lot of load on the king pin retainer bolt. It works but it has a tendency to fret the king pin bolt and cause it to loosen over time. The looser it gets, the more pressure comes to bear on the dust seal in the bottom there.

The dust seal could likely go with the cup up or down but it should work just as well either way as long as the king pin bushings all get the service at the prescribed intervals like they should