I replaced my brake rotors over the weekend and when I was putting back the upper control arm ball joint into the knuclke, I stripped the bolt on the ball joint. I was able to put the castle nut on it, and tighten it, but it go to the point where it doesn't matter which way I turn the castle nut, it just spins on the threads of the ball joint. It did go far enough to allow me to insert the cotter pin.

The ball joint itself is fine, only the threads are messed up.

So my questions are do I have replace the entire control arm?

And how do I go about removing the castle nut?

Would I be able to rethread the bolt, or is it unsafe?

Thanks!

 

cut the nut...

you could try rethreading, but id just go buy another bolt.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by TOAB &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">cut the nut...

you could try rethreading, but id just go buy another bolt. </TD></TR></TABLE>

thats def. something you should try before replacing a whole uca... i recently changed my ball joints also and had a similar problem but i did not ruin the thread... i bought a tool at autozone for like 5.99 a nut cutting tool like mentioned above and it worked like a charm.
good luck.

handle with care, dont cut your own nuts