King pin replacement

I did this task on my daughters car today and found the forum guide very good. I would just like to add a couple of points I found that might help somebody doing it for the first time and is not shall we say spanner wise. I found that to remove the outer race of the king pin bearings from the axle a 25mm socket fits the job perfectly. The socket just goes into the race and jams then further hammer blows free the race. Then it is a simple job of knocking the race off the socket. The socket I used was a 1/2inch drive one with a 6 inch extension and a copper mallet so as not to damage the extension. Both out in a minute. Not every body has a welder!
The other thing was when the axle is stripped with the races out you can take the back plate, seal and ring off to clean them or replace them quite easily and then replace them before you start reassembley. And finally the write up does not mention the hub replacement part although it does mention fitting the washer and circlip. One thing about the circlip is that the eye holes are different sizes and because of the hub installations design it is impossible to get the circlips nibs very deep into the eyes recesses. I ended up struggling with screwdrivers and needing 3 hands! The circlip is a strong one and does not open very wide, just enough to fit the splines so it is a tricky job.
I hope this helps.
As regards my job I had noticed a sign of grease at the rear during a pre MOT inspection and ordered the bits from the forum shop. Upon stripping there was no mess as such just a lot of clean grease. Yet the bearings were rusted. The king pins themselves had not been sealed as per the forum tip and so can assume that road rain had worked its way in over time. There was a tiny bit of play before I stripped hence tackling the job. Since we have had the car it has not been offroaded and I don't think it had been before we got it. I had replaced the nearside one when we bought it as it was well gone even though it had a full MOT! Three years later this one needed doing!

Good tip with the socket Mickt,,, I have a welder so I spotted them... The circlip for me was 20 second job with circlip pliers and yes they are a strong clip. Mine weren't sealed also, which I believe was the reason they failed, the races were rusted and there was little evidence of grease, washed out I guess. I'd surely recommend readers to check theirs for sealant..

If my memory serves me.

1999 Jimny both sides king pins bearings done under warranty at say 30,000 miles less than three years and then 80,000 miles.

2007 car off the road from Feb to April 2010 due to accident repair and it was March registered. Suzuki said sorry out of warranty and both sides need done offside then and nearside later in the year, next year.

Today at 60k or so miles no play on the kinpins and the offside hub is is appart so Im thinking of doing the offside while it is apart.

No sealant in there as local garage done it but still had grease on them but a bit dirty.

BGbrit I have a variety of circlip pliers and none of them were able to do the expansion part of the clip long enough to expand the clip over the shaft easily. Because of the lack of depth penetration of the nibs when I did manage to expand the circlip the motion of moving the pliers outward to move the circlip down the shaft resulted in the circlip pliers losing their grip. What make of pliers did you use?

I can't remember where I got them but they new from last year and used for the firsttime a couple of days ago..

Order code KEN-558-6750K Kennedy Interchangable head circlip plier set. 10-50mm Capacity.

I may have got them from Cromwell tools or Europarts over the web..

They worked brilliant like I said 20 seconds and clip was on..