Washer Under Ball Joint Castle Nut - Lateral-g Forums

jtwoods4 · #1 02-11-2015, 12:38 PM

Hey Guys,

I am in the process of building my pro touring race car and I ran into a small issue with the lower control arm ball joint and castle nut. I have the Speed Tech AFX aluminum spindles and I installed the lower ball joint castle nut and torqued to 80 lbs. Well I realized that 80 lbs is the torque amount for a cast iron spindle. So I removed the castle nut and the re-torqued to the correct 40 lbs. I installed a grade 8 flat washer under the castle nut to get the cotter pin hole to line up correctly in the castle nut. Do you guys see any problem with this? Here is a picture.

dontlifttoshift · #2 02-11-2015, 12:57 PM

Nope, we do it all the time. Most Mustang II suspension stuff uses thick washers between the spindle and castle nut, top and bottom. As long as the ID of the washer is bigger than the ball joint spud, you're good to go.

jtwoods4 · #3 02-11-2015, 12:59 PM

Great thank you.

Ron in SoCal · #4 02-11-2015, 01:03 PM

Yep. Had to do it with my LG Spindles and Pfadt / Howe lower BJ. Pfadt told me NP.

jtwoods4 · #5 02-11-2015, 01:10 PM

I guess what I'm more concerned about is that I originally torqued the castle nut to 80 pounds. I didn't realize that was incorrect and completely removed the castle nut and retorqued to 40 lbs. so technically the ball joint was seated in the spindle under 80 pounds of torque I did not remove the ball joint from the spindle even though I removed the castle nut and retorqued it. maybe I'm over analyzing this and its not a big deal I just want to make sure everything is safe up front since this car will be approaching speeds of 140 miles an hour and taking some serious track abuse.

CraigS · #6 03-06-2015, 07:45 AM

The over torqueing won't have any effect on the seating of the ball joint. But I would be concerned that you possibly stretched the threaded portion by doubling the torque. Find out what size the nut's threads are and check a generic torque chart for the dry torque spec for that size bolt.
http://www.engineershandbook.com/Tables/torque.htm

Vegas69 · #7 03-06-2015, 12:58 PM

I'm no engineer but I bet that ball joint stud sees well in excess of 80 ft lbs.

intocarss · #8 03-06-2015, 02:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vegas69

I'm no engineer but I did stay in a Holiday Inn last night.. I bet that ball joint stud sees well in excess of 80 ft lbs.

FIXED IT FOR YA