The king pin replacement scenario

I have just started to tackle a weeping king pin on the Jimny. It seems to me that all Japenese cars are made with bolts that are poorly plated. The four bolts holding the hub and brake back plate on to the axle are supposed to be 14mm heads but alas the spanner when fitted just slipped as the plating crumbled away. I have come across this on both Hondas and Toyotas. It has to be a ring spanner, as you cannot get a socket on because of the hub. The bolts were tight as they had signs of locking fluid on the threads. Luckily for me I have a set of "metrinch" tools which are designed to loosen worn headed bolts and nuts. They do this by the innovative design of the sockets and indeed the open ended spanners, being a wavy shape as opposed to flat or multi point. Somebody else tackling this might not be so lucky. Anybody else come across this problem?
Anyway, when I got the hub loose and undid the top king pin the hub fell out and with it the top bearing along with what seems to be a washer or shim. If it is a shim it could have come from either bearing. It was difficult to tell because of all the gunk that is present when the oil and grease mix. Could anybody advise what this washer/shim is?
Many thanks MichaelT

Dont have to undo them 4 bolts all that does is make it lighter to remove and refit

That washer sits over the kingpin to set load onto the bearing.

markyp2000 wrote: Dont have to undo them 4 bolts all that does is make it lighter to remove and refit

I fell into this trap - it is a bit frustrating. Not having any experience of this particular job I followed the 'guide to fitting the king pin bearings' but only realised when it had all fallen on the floor that it was not absolutely necessary. To be fair I would probably still remove that joint for a couple of reasons the main one being that I know if I have to come back to it I can now get it off having broken the Suzuki killer seal. As I can't get any of my torque wrenches in there to tighten them to torque I decided to yank it up to what I could unyank. :laugh:

The bolts were tight as they had signs of locking fluid on the threads. Somebody else tackling this might not be so lucky. Anybody else come across this problem?

Almost me - tight buggers they are but I just made sure the ring spanner was on properly before giving it some real welly. I reckon it calls for a ring spanner with only 6 flats. The stuff that the factory uses is really good at holding the bolts but what do they think is going to happen?? It is a belts and braces approach and seems like overkill to me. I have only ever had old cars - by old I mean anything up to the 20 year age - so I sort of anticipate awful jobs like this. Out of all I would say Suzuki whack up their screws, nuts and bolts the hardest of all manufacturers I have ever owned. You are working with undersize heads too so a lot of load is put on a big bolt via a small head......crazy.

Should the lower pin have one too? Are the washers/shims sized so that the preload is correct and if so how do you check and set the preload?
It also came to me that the upper bearing is going to be tricky to keep in place whilst you refit the drive shaft. Is the grease able to do this? The lower bearing has gravity on its side!
Cheers for your help.
Mickt

To be honest take the whole lot apart and buy high grade 12.9 replacement bolts (or 10.2 if 12.9's not available).

It's what I did when I did my KP's and do whenever I replace or repair anything on the J.