so changed the DS UCA yesterday...

abit more of a pain than the PS since the top bolts that hold the arm is under the master cyl and the fuse box for the 3.2L...

now the weird thing, i got everything back together, and jacked up the knuckle to meet with the ball joint... i put on the castle nut and started to tighten, it got on half way and the nut is just loose and keeps spinning around the ball joint stud and doesn't tighten any more, but there is still a gap... i confirmed that the ball joint is not moving as i am tightening the nut since the hole for the cotter pin is in the same spot... the nut was high enough for me to get the cotter pin on... so i put on the pin, but the nut is still loose around the pin and there is a gap from the top of the knuckle to the bottom of the ball joint boot...

any thoughts?

 

Did you check the thread on the ball joint itself and the play in the ball joint is it any good? I'd advise to replace it just to be safe buy some at Napa I just did lower ball joints and it's very easy. That sounds a little dangerous because a cotter pin isn't sufficient enough to hold to ball joint in. But I suspect ball joint boot isn't on correctly.

 

so i tried to back off the castle nut off the ball joint, and it wouldn't back down... just kept spinning too... i figured that there is prob a stripped thread... so i wedged the fork back in, put pressure on the knuckle and managed to get the nut off... separated the knuckle and sure enough, right above the hole for the cotter pin, the first line of thread is stripped. i think when they drilled the hole it screwed up the thread and when i put the nut on, it didn't continue onto the next line...

i'll see if i can fix the thread, otherwise, ill just reassemble it and put a washer in before the castle nut...

 

You sure about that anyways that really sucks. How's the thread on the castle nut itself?

 

i looked at the thread on the new castle nut that came with the new UCA and it was f'ed... i think that was wat ruined the ball joint... so i put on the old castle nut with good threads and tightened it up to the point where the bj was stripped and the bj would just spin with the castle nut now... it wouldn't go on anymore by hand, so i had to use an impact gun and it went on like a dream... everything looks great now...

 

Cool nice to hear you got it resolve. I like hearing when problems get fixed it seems very few people respond on their own threads when they get the problem resolved.

 

yea it is always good to post your resolution so that in the future when other members come across the same problems, we got some record on it...