anyone have ideas how to tighten castlenut onto ball joint?

[dhughins]

I've been doing a front disc brake swap from ECE since last Friday. I'm having problems with the driver's side Castle nut that tightens onto the ball joint. I got the nut started but the ball joint stud spins with it. We tried jacking up the control arm until it lifted the truck off the jack, thinking that would put enough weight on the ball joint. no luck. I've tried setting the truck down with weight on wheels and that had the opposite effect(the ball joint space opened up). Any ideas?

i really don't wanna have to replace the ball joint. right now.

[JimKshortstep4x4]

Make sure both tapers are clean and dry. Clean the threads or better yet chase them on both the nut and ball joint, assemble the ball joint to the spindle and put some grease on the external threads. If it won't tighten with a wrench spin it with an impact gun. This has always worked for me.

Good luck,

Jim

[SS Tim]

Just to be clear here. Is the nut cross threaded as in it won't go on or off now? Was the ball joint stud worn and shiny? If you are not sure take a look at the spindle you removed. The stud should lock in the taper on the spindle, are these new or used spindles?
If the threads are damaged try a thread file and do as little damage as possible. Sound like your ball joint is kind of shot as it is. Does the stud flop/rotate freely? If there is no preload its toast.

[tubbedII]

Even though the impact would probably be the only thing that would work in this case (given the threads are clean), you should really just replace the BJ. If it has enough play to spin, then it's just a good idea to replace now since it's apart..

[INSIDIOUS '86]

You can put a pickle fork in there and use it to jam the ball joint till the nuts tight
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[ulakovic22]

Aren't the ball joints used for drum brake spindles different than disk brake spindles? If so, do you have new correct ball joints? I thought I remembered something about the taper being different as well as the length, but I could be wrong, I'm still a newb on these trucks.

[dhughins]

Originally Posted by ulakovic22

Aren't the ball joints used for drum brake spindles different than disk brake spindles? If so, do you have new correct ball joints? I thought I remembered something about the taper being different as well as the length, but I could be wrong, I'm still a newb on these trucks.

I ordered a kit from Early Classic that uses the stock ball joint.

My ball joints don't flop around but it does spin while trying to tighten the castle nut.

On the passenger side we used a puller to push the 2 together, gonna try it on this side tomorrow.

[dhughins]

Used the pulled to push it together and finally got done.
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