Aug 23 (edited)

1929 Bentley Speed Six Axle Repairs

When I sent the Bentley out to have its brakes done, I was told that the King Pins had issues and needed to be replaced. We ordered new, exact reproductions from England and thought this would be an easy install. Turns out the old king pins had been loose from wear and had hardened pins hammered in to lock them in place. This was done many years ago. And a cluster to remove! After no luck, my mechanic removed the axle and took it to his favorite machine shop that had a 20 ton press. With a gentle nudge the king pins were free! Axle back in car torqued to 120 ft/lbs, new axle bolts grade 8 with grade 8 nuts (heads ground so they look old), lock washered and locktited!! Better than new!!!

1 / 6

Aug 23, 2026

Post your reply…

Replies (13)

· Aug 23

That is cool.

· Aug 23

Quite the project to make them like new. Very impressive.

· Aug 23

Thanks.. Mechanics are great at finding issues.. they also replaced the bearing, fuel pump, fuel filter, battery terminals, and added a replica oil filter holder.. I'm sure more will come up!

· Aug 24

Old cars are like that. They go in the shop for an oil change and next thing you know they are in 100 pieces.

· Aug 24

Perry, your post raised my curiosity. I guess I just assumed thread design and tools were all metric for your car, but a quick search said that didn’t come till later and yours were all BSF, BSW measurements. Has that caused any issues sorting and doing work on your car?

· Aug 24

Not sure. My guess is these nuts are British standard!

· Aug 24

John, That era English car would be Witworth like my RR.

You can use a combination of SAE and Metric tools for the most part. If you are hardcore you should get a Withworth set and they come up every once in a while.

After WWII they started going Metric and by 68 were 100% standardized.