ok here is my problem, my lower ball joint on my civic freely spins with nut, the thread on the ball joint is stripped and wont tighten all the way. it goes about a quarter of the way then spins together with the ball joint. Can I rethread it? is there a easier way to remove the ball joint itself and install it. I looked at the shop manuals and I need a vice and special tools to remove it, has anyone dealt with this problem before?

 

this has happened to me before. what i wound up doing was taking real small vice grip pliers and locking on the stud on the balljoint between the part where its attacthed to the wheel and the lower control arm(u have to kinda move the boot around a lil to get the pliers in there). after that, tighten away. this is by no means the best way to do it, getting a new balljoint would be the best thing, but if you need a quick fix it should work. MAKE SURE YOU CAN TIGHTEN THE CASTLE NUT ENOUGH TO GET THE COTTER PIN IN!!. mine castle nut was stripped and it couldnt thread enough to get the cotter pin through- 2 weeks later the castle nut cam off when i was at a stoplight and the front end of my car all but hit the ground- broke my cv joints and ****- bad news. i was goin 120 like 5 min before then too- if it happend when i was driving i woulda died

 

no doubt the easiest way to get the castle nut off and on all the way with no hastle is with an air impact gun, the nut tightens up so fast that the bolt has no time to spin. but for this case, be smart and replace the ball joint first, otherwise youll be spending way to much time on something that is really a simple fix. hope this helps, and if you dont have an impact or air compressor, find someone that does, trust me, nothing works better.