making piston pins

Anonymous-0 · Nov 11, 2013

I need a set of oversize piston pins but cannot find any, what type of material would I use to make some ,the machine shop says they can grind them for me

Janicholson · Nov 11, 2013

Purchase piston pins that are too big (in at least the dimension you need) and have them ground to correct size. The heat treatment and steel used is not over the counter stuff. Jim

Rick Kr · Nov 11, 2013

Since you didn"t say what type of engine, I am assuming a tractor of some sorts. Here is a nice little guide from JE pistons on their wrist pins.

JE makes awfully good pistons, not the top of the line, but pretty good. I have sprayed motors with gobs of nitrous (up 600hp) and never had a wrist pin fail. I have turned other parts to vapor or a melted mess, but the wrist pins have always held.

Mine were always 0.150" wall thickness on my big block chevys.

Rick
JE pistons

Bob Huntress · Nov 11, 2013

Hardened steel, chrome plated. Remember that the pins are forged, then hardened and plated.

NCWayne · Nov 11, 2013

Like others have said, wrist pins are hardened to the point they can"t be machined, and then ground to size. Basically they are special so just having one made isn"t going to be cheap. That said, you might want to give the folks at Egge Machine a call. They specialize in making parts for old/obsolete engines so you might get lucky and find they have what you need, even if it is a tractor.
Egge machine

Dalex · Nov 11, 2013

I'll second Egge. I needed pins for a super "A" , and it turned out that the ones in the flathead ford were the same only longer. I cut them off in the chop saw and smoothed the ends , runs perfect !!

gene bender · Nov 12, 2013

What size do you need OD and length. Some research then with a cyclinder grinder you can get some as your machine shop says. Never know just who mite have some that could be used.

Anonymous-0 · Nov 12, 2013

I have made them from 4140, prehardened and then grind to size.

Tensile Strength: 160,000 PSI

Yield Strength: 135,000 PSI

Hardness: 28-32 Rockwell “C”

Other hardnesses can be obtained with further heat treatment.

Mike M · Nov 12, 2013

I needed some for an unstyled JD B and found an engine machine shop that had a booklet from some vendor that sold wrist pins by dia. and length and they had many sizes listed. Price was good too.
I think this was R & R engine and machine in Akron Ohio that found them for me.

gene bender · Nov 12, 2013

Yes they can be machined ,ground to fit what ever size needed. I was machinist where we extruded lead and aluminum tubes for toothpaste and ect ground rockwell hardness in the 60s for fit.

Earl-IL · Nov 12, 2013

What engine & what dia.??

NCWayne · Nov 12, 2013

What I was meaning is that after being hardened they can"t be machined and have to be ground to the final, true size. Granted I know they can be machined before hardening, but afterwards they are too hard for anything but grinding. I had one years ago I wanted to use for a spacer, and needed one end a few thousands smaller than it was, and figured I could get at least that little bit off of it. How wrong I was. I tried a carbide insert and it laughed at it, I tried a ceramic insert and it laughed at it. Short of grinding there was no way that pin was going to get any smaller. I wound up getting a piece of regular 4140 to make the piece I needed and threw the pin in the scrap bin.

making piston pins

Anonymous-0

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Rick Kr

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Bob Huntress

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NCWayne

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gene bender

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