im trying to put the castle nuts on but both lcas like to keep turning when the castle nuts go on a little bit. so i can get them on anymore, cant even get the cotter pins in. how do i stop the entire bolt from moving? or are they broken or something.

 

LCA? I think you're referring to the knuckle?

First of all, why are you putting castle nuts back on the ball joints? Did you replace the ball joints? If so, two things. One, the ball joints need to be pressed in. Two, the only thing that prevents the bolts from rotating is the taper/interference fit as the bolts drop through the LCA – so you don't want to grease them.

If the bolt is rotating and the above is fine, and the thread pitch of the castle nut is fine, then more than likely your threads are screwed up on either the ball joint or the nut - causing resistance when you're trying to start the nut. Did you beat the ball joints out with a hammer? Check if you "mushroomed" the bolts. If so retap/rethread the nut/bolt or buy a new nut (if the bolt then you'll have to remove the ball joint again or buy new ones). If that isn't the problem either, try using a impact wrench to START the nuts. Until the nuts make contact with the bottom of the LCA, the bolts might not be pulled through or "wedged" enough to prevent them from rotating when you're tightening the nut.

We replaced the lower knuckle ball joints in my 97 GSR, and the replacements actually used nylock nuts, not castle nuts. We had to use an impact wrench to start the nuts, otherwise the nylon caused enough resistance that the ball joint bolts were rotating turning them on with a wrench. Once we tightened them up some with an impact, we finished them off with a torque wrench. No problems.

For a castle nut, torque to the minimum value, and then rotate further until the hole lines up so you can insert the pin.

 

well i changed my clutch.
had the tranny out and everything else that goes with it, i got everything installed and back together, but im trying to put the castle nuts back on the bottom behind the hub and i got the nuts on so far but not enough to fully get the pin through, and they wont go no more cause its like their sticking and the entire bolt moves with the nut, weather i use sockets, wrenches, torque wrench, hands, anything.


i did use the u shape fork to love them because they were stuck to the lcas, so a little hitting on the screws were involved, but i don't wanna go buy knew knuckles and spend time at a shop getting presses done.

 

Threads are probably damaged. You can try to run a die on them, but you'll probably have to get new ball joints pressed.

 

Yeah, this is really common. I have had to get two new ball joints pressed in within the last year.

 

so what do i do o_O how do i ride it to the shop lol, will it ride like this? withn them being spaced so far apart between the lca and the castle nut? lol

how much are lower ball joints.

 

i had this problem. i soaked the castle nut and stud in break fluid. then had a friend step on the rotor while i tightened it. worked like a charm lmao

 

try putting a jack under lower control arm and jacking it up to compress suspension while u try to tighten ball joint nut. if this still doesnt work, then your threads are fuked up. u may be able to repair the threads though, go to sears and get a metric tap and die set and use them to clean up the threads on the ball joint and the castle nut, then try again

 

well i tried the jack thing, but it doesnt work, so i think the threads r ****ed because the nut goes on alot of the way just not enough to get the pin in lol, im gonna soak in in break cleaner as u said and try that .


i rly dont wanna press new ones in ;(

 

man until i replace my right knuckles lower ball joint, i face this every time, its quick and simple fix, just takes another friend to help, while your down there have a friend put a lot of pressure on the rotor with his foot, the pressure usually holds the ball joint still enough to tighten it up.. i have done this 5-6 times..

 

More than likely the hammer is what did them in. If the jack or impact wrench didn't work then is isn't worth trying to force them on anymore. (go ahead and try the brake fluid, I think you're out of luck though) But if you do manage to get them on now, more than likely they won't want to come off again if you ever need to remove them. And then you'll really hate that situation.

If you want to avoid a press, best suggestion is a die at this point. If you don't have one hopefully you can borrow from somebody if you don't like to own new tools. :-)

Once threads get messed up though, or bolts/nuts are rusted enough that it takes an impact to remove them, it's always best to chase them with a tap or die right away. Otherwise things just get worse from there...

If you do a lot of DIY work, I'd really recommend purchasing a press. You can get decent upright "bottle-jack" type press for under $200. We bought a 12-ton from Northern Tool when it was on sale, and have since upgraded the jack to a 20-ton. It's paid itself off several times already—wheel bearings, ball joints, bushings, etc...

 

if you can get a die grinder and a buffer pad, you can grind the top of the treads down so the nut will catch further up the ball joint. smooth out the top of the treads like a cone shape and you can probably get it in.

 

Good suggestion, but if his threads are messed up that isn't going to help. If all it takes is some pressure on the rotor, then the jack and/or impact wrench would have already taken care of it. The castle nut won't turn on anymore, more than likely his threads are damaged. Otherwise he wouldn't have been able to get the nut on as far as he did already, plus he said he still has a visible gap. You can usually insert the cotter pin before you even begin to tighten the castle nuts..

 

i really like the press ur talking about for under 200
$ or even around that price..

could u tell me more.

also i have brake cleaner here and im going to take a pic of how things look so u guys can see and post up soon.

 

Here's the press we purchased…

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/w...6415_200326415

It was on sale when we bought it, and now looking at the price I believe it was around $120 or $130 when it was on sale—it also looks like they put a bigger post on it since. It is a cheap one though, so don't expect precision. It is also a manual bottle jack, so unless you make some interesting jigs to hold parts pretty good, you might need two people on some items. We both had to help pressing out/in the wheel bearings and ball joints. We pushed that 12-ton to it's max limit on the wheel bearing, I could barely pull on jack handle anymore when all of a sudden it cracked loose. That snapped so loud it scared the crap out of us. Since then we replaced the jack with a 20-ton (I didn't buy it so I don't know what the $ was) and it works great.

We've done everything with it. Wheel bearings, bushings, extended studs, ball joints, flywheel pilot bearing, main oil seal (easier to push it in than trying to hammer a seal driver or block of wood on center), everything. The only thing we couldn't do is the RTA bushing, that big 3" sucker. We couldn't come up with a good way to hold the RTA steady, so we had a shop do that one.

It's the best purchase we ever made regarding my GSR. And we ended up replacing more items than trying to reuse or hope the old parts were still good. It cost more money in the long run of course, buying new bearings and stuff. But at least I'm not worried about anything critical when my car hits the track.

Unrelated, but here’s a picture of that lower ball joint with the nyloc on it. We got it from NAPA, and it was indeed the right part number, but that's the first ball joint I've seen with a nyloc. (it didn't even have a hole for a cotter pin) We didn't even attempt to salvage the old ones, we broke them loose from the LCA using an old piece of steel fencepost and a sledgehammer.



We used a jack like JRSC01GS-R suggested, and an impact wrench to tighten the nut. Once it snugged up some we finished off with a standard wrench / torque wrench. Otherwise that sucker was not letting us twist it on once we hit the nylon. At least we don't need to worry about it falling off. :-)