Getting cotter pin through ball joint

[JRouche]

I dont know, but the couple of posts on modifying the nut just doesnt sound right to me. Castellated nuts arent the best of nuts to begin with. So deepening the groves or thinning the base just doesnt sound like a good idea.

And I understand they are mainly for a safety issue, if the taper fit lets loose. Well I think the taper does let loose after some miles. After you seat the taper, if you were to back the nut off a 1/8 of a turn, so the nut is loose I wouldnt be surprised after driving the car the pin on the BJ will back out the distance that you gave it, that slack.

They arent tension nuts, but they do keep the pin seated. Im not a fan of castellated nuts, but thats what is used. Making the nut even weaker than it already is IMO is a bad idea.

If the pin is seated all the way in and you still cant see the hole then the bore of the spindle may be off.

Seat the pin as far as you can. I can really lay into my nuts and the ball doesnt loose traction. Thats really odd you had to replace the BJs because of that. They should be a pretty tight fit. And I use Moog joints. Maybe low friction joints are like that though, dunno.

So anyway, seat the pin as far as it will go, use a air wrench if you need to. Just to get the speed of turning to seat the taper, NOT for the additional torque. Then if the hole still cant be seen remove the nut and washer. The pin will stay in place. Then look at the top of the spindle arm (or bottom if its the top BJ), right where the pin comes through. All of the cars I have worked on, (which really isnt that many) will have the top of the taper on the pin just at the top of the edge of the spindle arm, I can always see the end of the taper.

Thats the way its supposed to be. If you have threads below the top of the arm (for the bottom joint), in the bore its wrong. If the pin taper is just slightly, like say an 1/8" above the arm no big deal, just fine. The washer (or two) will give you plenty of threads to grip onto with the nut. You dont want the pin sitting to low in the bore. If it is then either the pin is off (not likely) or the aftermarket spindle balljoint bore is too small. You want the spindle arms bore fully engaged, the entire surface, with the BJ pin.

On critical parts like this dont fix a bad fitment with even worst fixes. Find the problem, no matter how painful it might be, work through it. You will be happy if you do. Peace of mind every time you drive the car and really, you just dont want a failure on that part. You shear a BJ pin or crack a castellated nut and you will be lucky if you happen to be parking it. JR

[ma73z]

Jrouche I wasn't saying throw the nut on a 36 grit belt and take an 1/8 inch off just simply removing a couple thousandths lets the slots move that much more just to let the pin slide in.

[wedged]

ma73z if you're that concearned over taking a few thousands of an inch off of a castle nut to allow it to do the job it was designed to do, then perhaps you'd better find another hobby. Sorry to be harsh, but there are many times when one must modify parts to enable them to work. I can't imagine what you'd think of people cutting , shortening and welding steering arms back together. If no one did stuff like this, then this entire website and this hobby would not exist.

[scherp69]

Thanks for all the advice guys. I plan on getting to them on Monday or Tuesday so this will come in handy.

JR...I'm not sure if I would have had to replace the ball joints or not. If I would have asked this question back then, I wouldn't have. I guess I just didn't know better and thought since they were spinning, something must be wrong. Atleast I didn't throw them out so I have two good replacements.

[ma73z]

Wedged I think if you read my posts again you will see that I was saying I had no problem modifying the nuts in order to make them work, I have done so many times sorry if my advise doesn't work for you it has for me.

[JRouche]

Originally Posted by ma73z

Wedged I think if you read my posts again you will see that I was saying I had no problem modifying the nuts in order to make them work, I have done so many times sorry if my advise doesn't work for you it has for me.

Hahaha!! He was on such a rant that he pointed it at the wrong dude. He was talking to me. Guess he got a lil flustered and hit the wrong reply to button. Hmmm, quick to act but not thinking.

Just kidding Wedged, honest mistake. Posting to the wrong person. I get a lil fired up sometimes too. And so with that Ill go ahead and take the reins on your post.

Wedge said: ma73z if you're that concearned over taking a few thousands of an inch off of a castle nut to allow it to do the job it was designed to do, then perhaps you'd better find another hobby. Sorry to be harsh, but there are many times when one must modify parts to enable them to work. I can't imagine what you'd think of people cutting , shortening and welding steering arms back together. If no one did stuff like this, then this entire website and this hobby would not exist.
Yesterday 08:16 PM

So that was for me.. Umm. Well Ill stand by my idea that you shouldnt thin out a castellated nut, that is weak already. And you say a few thou?? Really? You talked about touching it off on the sander. What method did you use to ensure a parallel surface? If I remove any metal from a seating member I use a lathe or mill. So do you hold it with your fingers and take a couple thou off. Where do you determine that the nut still has a flat parallel surface? Not an issue? Ok.

So I guess its about just getting the job done right? I get that. I HAVE been there and done it. Still do.

But the diff is when I do it I dont get online and say F off dude when someone questions my methods. No, I will just ignore it. If they dont like my idea then thats fine. Cause really, my idea was prolly a hack fix anyway. I cant defend a hack fix. But I will still give my hack advise.

But for you to come back and defend your hack fix just makes you look petty.

Keep giving advice, its really good to have ALL the options. JR

[wedged]

ma73z- woops- sorry, wrong person.

JRouche - You might want to try re-reading what I wrote. No where did I use the offensive language that you implied. I did not question your method. I never mentioned a sander. What I did imply is that is that you may be worrying too much about modifying a part to make it work.

Defend my "hack fix" ? No need. The nut and stud I descibed modifying (actually not a ball joint, but a pitman arm stud and I didn't use a castellated nut) has been in service for over 20 years now. I'm not concearned about the nut not having a parallel face since I didn't grind the contact surface.