a friend of a friend brought his 2001 civic over for me to put some new kyb struts on if for him. he allready had it lowered, i think something like 1.5". when i went to install the new struts on the front end i realised the tie rod ends where shot, when i tried tightening down the nut the bolt would just spin freely. i replaced the tie rod ends for him, no big deal.
i want to know how common this problem is. also, what can we do to remody this problem. any help will be apreaciated, this is the newest civic i have worked on, i have been stuck in the dionasaur age of the ef and eg's.


Modified by stoned_sol at 10:14 AM 7/6/2005

 

anyone????

 

getting a tap and die set helps to chase the threads and make sure the threads are straight on the balljoint and castle nut. of course if the balljoint just spins while trying to use the die, then just use a vice grip to hold the balljoint together on the tapered surface. then file away any marks, or just leave it alone, its no big deal.

if it still spins while trying to put it all together, use an impact wrench to get the nut on.

but generally if the balljoint is moving freely, it probably needs replacing anyway.

 

thanks for the info, but i allready took care of that.

im trying to find out if busted ball joints are a common problem and if there is anythng i can do to prevent it from happening again. are there aftermarked tierods or tierod ends that will hold up better.

 

just make sure the boots are in good shape. a boot with a hole in it is the reason why balljoints go bad. if the boot contains the grease and doesnt let anything come in, theres really no reason the balljoint goes bad. i keep a few extra OEM boots on hand.