What's up with this?

Why do they spin freely when I try to tighten the nut down again? did I break the ball joint loose inside somehow?

 

Same thing happened to me when i was changing my subframe, people will say you need new ball joints. I applied a thin coat of antiseize on the threads and on the nut after i cleaned them very nice and put it back on nice and tight. Hope that helps.

 

Air gun will solve that problem.

 

I had that problem too when i was doing my 5-lug conversion.....and I found out how to fix it...

Get yourself a very large pair of channel locks and a friend to grip the ball joint down on the control arm, this worked for me and I torqued the ball joint down to spec before putting in the cotter pin...

Hope it works for you too...

 

do what ever it takes to tighten it down. remember the cotter pins. for the love of pete dont forget them. trust me, I learned the hard way not to drive on ball joints that dont tq down.

so tq them down!!

 

Thanks guys. I'll try to figure something out tomarrow..

 

Well we got them.

And for future reference, this is what we did.

Vise grips on the tie rod arm. Bend to the side as hard as possible to somewhat jam the ball joint shank against the inside of the knuckle hole.. and tighten it. It is kindof hard.. but possible.

 

BTW, for those wondering..

The nut itself is actually a lock nut (I studied fasteners in my auto course) which makes it hard to put on regardless. They are just like header nuts, the castles open up when you tighten it down. And they double up because you can use the groove for the cotter pin. They're closely related to nylon lock nuts..

The ball joints are likely just ghey like this.. I wish they would have made them with some sort of secureness inside the ball joint so you can tighten them down easier. They might be like that when they are brand new though, so I don't know for sure.

And always use a tie rod separator.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Nameless EJ6 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">What's up with this?

Why do they spin freely when I try to tighten the nut down again? did I break the ball joint loose inside somehow?</TD></TR></TABLE>

the ball joint is design to spin freely with out load....that is how the press them into the knuckle assem.

the trick to get them to not to spin is to apply a load on them....this mean you jack up the suspension alittle bit until they no longer spin. warning don't jack on the ball joint stud, you will damage it. use the LCA.

good luck