I finished with the king pin replacement on Saturday, put about 40 miles on it since then. Everything seems ok. It was kinda good that I did because the driver side outer wheel bearing race was pitted very badly for some reason. It wasn't quite time for cleaning and repacking the bearings, so I would not have found that, otherwise. The other bearings looked good.
The king pin job was pretty easy. Everything I read seemed to have people hammering for hours. Once I got the locking pins out, which were marginally tough, I could nearly pull the king pins out by hand. I had more difficulty getting the new pins lined up and installed than getting the old ones out. I scraped a couple pounds of crud from the axle and steering components, so that should make it faster and provide better weight transfer
The lug nuts were having some issues. They were getting tight on the studs. The studs checked out ok, but something was happening to the nuts. They were originally installed at some tire place when they told me what I already knew, that the original looking nuts were worn out, so I wouldn't be surprised if they were made in China or an equivalent. So I got some made in USA, McGard nuts with the black chrome finish. I think they look a lot better. I also painted the front hubs black so that area looks slightly better, too.
So I plan to drive it everyday so if I screwed something up, hopefully it will break before I leave. I don't have much else to do. Maintenance is pretty much up to date. Next weekend I'll check valve lash to make sure nothing weird is happening there - It sounds fine. I'll make sure the fuel filters are clean and grease the steering once more before the trip. I also need to redo one of my carb inlet lines because I nicked it with a cutoff wheel when I made it. Not enough to leak, but a good place for a crack to develop and I can't have that, even on a short trip.
I also turned the tie rod around. When I replaced the tie rod ends a few years ago, I was on the second one when I realized the right was on the left and the left was on the right - it didn't really matter, it still works - you just turn it in the opposite direction, but I like to have things by the book when possible.
I got an assortment of 4 hole spacers, 1/2" to 2" that I plan to try before I leave. I had to get a thinner air cleaner in order to use the 2" spacer. It's a Moroso 14", which I've read some good things about, black powder coated since I don't generally like chrome. It's a raised base, but is about 1" shorter than my current 11" and that should allow adequate hood clearance. I might use it no matter which spacer I decide on. My K&N stub stack won't work with it, but I have a bigger carb that I will try some time after Columbus, hopefully before the end of the year so that slight loss in cfm probably won't matter in the long run. Since I can't use the stub stack with it, then I can get the flat or dropped base version of the air cleaner if it turns out to be necessary - the stub stack needs so much room above it to function properly.
I also picked up a Sony action cam (same idea as Gopro but a little cheaper) so I can try to get some in car footage. It has gps, which indicates mph, among other things, so that could be neat. It also has a remote control so I can start recording remotely at the starting line but at the end of the track, it will be too far, so the driver will have to shut it off. But that makes it so that the driver shouldn't have to worry about anything but racing at the start.
Lawrenceville, GA