Washer Under Ball Joint Castle Nut

[jtwoods4]

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 alluminum 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.

https://www.pro-touring.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=108859&stc=1

[Schwartz Performance]

No sir, no problems there.

-Dale

Edit: I was only responding to a washer underneath it (read outside the lines) - I also recommend replacing the ball joint since it sounds like something stretched out!

[gray86hach]

I would replace the ball joint.

If you streched the stud it could fail.

Tim

[Carl @ Chassisworks]

The balljoint is likely fine but we would suggest replacing it just to be safe. The threaded section is what would be stretched and that's the weakest point of the balljoint. More likely is it would do damage to the upright. As you have the aluminum ATS spindle so I recommend calling Speed Tech to get their opinion.

[Peter Mc Mahon]

If that balljoint can also be used with a cast iron upright, and I'm sure it can, then it is good for 80 lbs, so no issue there. I would personally not be concerned about having the 80 lb torque do any damage to the 1/2" thick or so aluminum, but better safe than sorry so call speedtech.