Front End Rebuild, Pt. 6: Steering Knuckle Bearings

Little by little, things are coming together. I needed to get new bushings and bearings pressed into the Lark's steering knuckles, and the usual shops couldn't help me. Finally, I found a machine shop locally that had been written up in Rod & Custom a few years back; Auto Power in Oceanside didn't flinch when I said the "S" word (Studebaker), and said they could press out the old bushings and bearings and set in my new ones.

True to their word, they got rid of the old and put in the new. The old bearings/bushings didn't look too bad, but I'd rather be safe than sorry. It appears the old bearings were factory installed, since the rollers (41 of them in each) were non-captive; service replacements used captive rollers.

After getting that work done, I masked and painted the knuckles and steering arms with Rustoleum, torqued on the slotted nuts for the arms, and installed new cotter pins. They now look a whole lot better than they did when they came off the car, and are sealed in gallon Ziploc bags waiting to get reinstalled.