Setting Preload On Kingpin Bearings

Well I was doing the knuckle stud upgrade like James fino did. After I set the kingpin bearing preload to 16 lbs pull I put the metal rubber seal in then the felt and finally the 2 piece metal retainer and tighten it all down. Now the knuckle is reall hard to pull. Will it eventually loosen up or did I do something wrong. I used a Cabelas digital fish pull scale to set the preload. Any thoughts? The one thing I noticed was when I put the seal in it would not stay in the groove. I am wondering if it is pinched outside of the groove? Is there a easy way to get that seal to stay where it is suppose to sit?

 

Thanks Howard.

 

After reading your experience with the seal, I was thinking I did something wrong. Mine was a cakewalk (only one side done, I guess I just jinxed the other side).

Just curious @Renegade ll , did you use your scale after to see how much the pull increased? I did not but maybe for curiosity sake I will this weekend.

 

Well after a good nights sleep and thinking hard on this steering knuckle I decided to take it apart for the umpteenth time. Then I got to thinking maybe my scale was on the wrong thing. I checked and it always goes back to kg instead of staying on lbs. S0000 I started over shimming the kingpin bearings and got everything back the way it should have been from the start. I love my jeep, I love my jeep, I love my jeep. 16kg equals 35 lbs no wonder it was so tight. Thanks to all that helped.

 

No I did not, however it is quite hard to turn. I'm sure with power steering and moving it will move with ease.

 

Just for fun, I got about 27lbs on my scale with the knuckle seals in place.
I preloaded the bearings to about 14.5 lbs.