i have a 1988 force 125 and i need to replace the kingpin. I took off the lower kingpin cap but i dont see how the kingpin and svivel bracket come off. can anyone help me?
On the '89 I just took apart you have to remove that whole front lower section the swivel bracket goes through, have to do a little tapping and prying here as it has dowl pins near the lower part, and then there are 4 bolts with nuts (visable just above the 4 bolts for the cap/mount) that have to be unbolted. Also that section won't come out unless you remove the air intake snout that sticks up into the pan.
after you take off the bottom clamp then the kingpin should slide up & down through swivel bracket. You slide it down until top of kingpin clears engine pan and then the swivel/kingpin come out together. Take note of king pin location so that when you reassemble then you know how high up kingpin should go before you clamp it. If kingpin is too long or clamped in wrong spot then it can interfere with linkages.
if your kingpin is firmly seized into swivel bracket then it might be easier just to get different parts or cut the kingpin in two. you can get a machine shop to make you better than original kingpin for under $10. It is a standard size solid rod. Just get them to cut you a new length out of industrial or aircraft aluminum. If the OD of their rod stock is off then they can can put it on lathe and shave it down pretty easy. Then you will have AL-on-AL and galvanic corrosion won't stiffen up your steering.
thanks RRitt the king pin was seized in the pan pretty good i used a little man power to get it out. I dont have time to find a new one so cleaned it pretty good and reassembled it now the motor turns great. I dont know how log it will last but i need the boat for labor day. thanks for the help.
The kingpin turns in two plastic sleeves inside the swivel mount. What happens is that the aluminum of the swivel itself corrodes and squeezes the plastic hard onto the kingpin. No amount of greasing will free it. The last time I did it, I could not get the plastic sleeves out. So I rebored the plastic with a (I think) 1 1/8 or whatever the diameter of the kingpin is, spade bit. This freed them up quite nicely. Then I used a kingpin that was in better condition from another junker engine. The kingpin itself should not turn. It should be a snug fit in the upper pan and should be held tight by the four bolts on the lower engine mount cap.
in my experience the kingpin seizure is where the steel is in contact with the aluminum. The nylon bearings are an insulator and the AL has always been clean for me around the bearings. The kingpin is like the driveshaft .... made from standard machine steel. This type of iron/steel is much lower on anodic chart than stainless and will quickly corrode once the anode is used up. So my main issue with removal has been iron corrosion on center of kingpin that prevents it coming out. the harder you push to get kingpin out the more deeply it gets wedged into the bearings. If I was forced to do another one without option of throwing it out then I would probably drill a grease fitting hole and pour some phosophoric acid in before getting too involved. The pound it out with sledge from bottom and grind down mushrooming before final push. But swivels are cheap and time is not. So it is easier just to throw it out and put in an AL kingpin.
