cwmotorsport

hello people. I have replaced all front control arms and for some reason i cannot get the lower rear driver side control arm ball joint nut to tighten down firmly. the passenger side is nice n tight but iam at a loss for the driver side. is there a trick to getting the bolt tight? i made sure to jack up the spindle a bit to tighten under load but no luck. Can someone please tell me what i am doing wrong? the first replacement would just spin when I got the bolt down far enough. When i removed the control arm, the rubber boot was torn from getting the nut too far down on the threaded bolt. What can i do to get teh bolt tight? Thanks

SloopJohnB@mac.com

Perhaps you got the wrong lower control arm? Check the part number on the one you took off vs the new one.

Make sure the boot is on the bj correctly.

cwmotorsport

yes its the correct control arm. i ordered a complete kit form fcp euro and confirmed the part3 from them. I dont get why one side tightens up just fine but the other does not. I do know that some control arms will not fit at all but this one gos in just fine. is there an extra washer needed btwn the ball joint and nut? Isearched and seached the site but nothing came up re: this issue. Hopefully sombody has come across this issue and found a solution the the problem.

midnightrider36

sometimes if you get grease on the taper, either of the ball joint or in the spindle housing, the taper will spin while you turn the nut. try taking the joint out and cleaning the surfaces with brake clean. you can also try clamping the joint together to make the taper seat better, or jacking up the spindle and forcing the tapers together.

jamesm0913

I don't recall if there is enough room, but the threaded part of the ball joint has a hex head in it so you could hold the tapered part with an allen wrench and tighten the nut with an open end wrench.

cwmotorsport

hey guys, thanks for the replies. I will try to get the ball joint off again to clean the spindle. I did have a bad cv joint on the driver side that of corse spewed grease all over the spindle. I tried wiping the excess out of the spindle but definitely get some brake cleaner in there. The other thing to mention is when i removed the first CA i noticed the rubber boot was torn. Can that be from the ball joint moving around? I hope i didn't destroy a second control arm. I now see how grease can cause the taper to just spin in the housing. Thanks again for the info...