Trouble with Lower Ball Joints

[KPWSerpiente]

I had to drop both of the lower arms at the ball joint in order to replace my passenger side axle. Now everything is back in place, but I cannot get the nut to tighten down on these joints at all...all that is happening is that the entire shaft is spinning with the nut as soon as I get it threaded. My boy and I have tried a few different things but we cannot get these two nuts to lock down because of the shaft spinning with them...anyone have any ideas on what we could do?

-T

 

[Staytuned]

Try placing your jack under the ball joint and jacking it up. The shaft of the ball joint is tapered so you need to get more of it up into the steering knuckle to stop it from spinning.

 

[ACM]

If jacking up under the ball joint doesn't work - it usually does, but I've occasionally had the pin still turn - take an old BJ nut and Dremel out the Nylon locking insert. Now the nut will not drag on the pin.

Obviously you shouldn't use this same nut as the final fastener, so if you don't have another Nylock nut available you need to acquire a non-locking nut.

Charles

 

[92awddsm]

I put a block of wood on the upper arm as a stop or wedge and a jack under the ball joint. this will hold pressure on the joint and keep it from turning.

 

[KPWSerpiente]

I already tried the jacking up of the balljoints directly before I posted this message but I havn't had time to give any of the other suggestions a shot. Hopefully one of them wiill work and I thank ya'll for the tips.

-T

 

[blackGSX2g]

Any updates on this? I jacked up the lower balljoint to the point that it was lifting my car. Could you explain the Dremel trick a little more? Thanks

 

[Jehu]

You basically cut out the locking portion of the nut, the nylon insert, so the nut just threads lightly on. You could also use a thread guage and get a plain replacement nut that fits.

 

[GotSome-Turbo]

I got an easy way to fix this problem
1. Get your body sitting on jack stands
2. tack the POs factory jack and put it between the upper control arm and the upper part of the fender and apply some pressure( ie jack it up)
3. at the same time place a good floor jack under your lower control arm and jack it up, the combined pressure from the top and bottom will keep the ball joint from spinning.

Ps I've used this on many, many vehicles and it always works

here's a rough(very rough) drawing of what I mean, the drawing might really really suck but I'm in a hurry and I think you can get the idea.

 

[underBoostAWD]

This is helpful thread.
I find the pin snugs up more easily by first using a std. nut (10MM X 1.25 for the upper, the lower is larger, not sure of size), then replacing it with the BJ nut.
This is a simple variation of the Dremel step.

 

[Pube Stache]

This is a bit old, but I had the same problem with my car. I had everything off the car and what I did was, wrap the ends of a needle nose vice grip in electrical tape, as not to scratch the shaft. Pushed down on the ball joint boot and clamped it on. Then placed the knuckle/hub onto it, and then tightned the nut.

 

[Drifte]

I do suspension work a lot working at the sears auto center. And this is a common problem, i do my own dsm's at home and have used tricks listed above. It's a similar problem you may have with tie rod ends. If their is pressure on the balljoint it cant move (or tierod end). An impact is handy for these, especially using a high speed 3/8 mac; real snappy but not a lot of torque.

if anyone has any more questions with that you can PM me if you'd like. But for now im gonna go search the performace advantages of welded ball joints.