Took the 68 on a road trip. Lower ball join nut failed.

[Chad-1stGen]

The good news is that nobody was hurt and the Camaro was relatively uninjured. Had just driven the car over 400 miles to my brothers house for a family get together. Took my younger sister for a ride and just as we are pulling up at my brothers house I hear a bang and the car bounces a few times.

It was late at night so I used a floor jack to get it out of the street until morning. Upon inspection the ball joint threads looked pretty good but the threads on the nut were totally gone. Moog parts with about 3500 miles on them total.

Only thing I can think of is overtightening or defective nut. I did the tightening and don't recall wrenching down on it to hard. Either way I was damn lucky it didn't happen at 85 mph on the drive up or on some of the corners I was taking spiritedly with my sis in the car.

This was after the day before my starter failed on my truck and I found that my boat poped two freeze plugs (one each side both behind motor mount). They say things come in 3's so I hope no more mechanical failures.

[WS6]

Wow! You are very lucky. I am glad nothing major happened.

[MrQuick]

strange that it got past the cotter pin but yes i am glad there was no adverse affects. caulk that one up to luck. 65-75 ft lbs and make it click.

[ProTouring442]

No offense, but you probably did what I did, or rather didn't do. If you leave the nut loose, the constant pounding from the stud will strip the threads out of the nut. Fortunately, the arm came loose in the driveway, after a 3 HOUR trip! :eek:

Anyway, not trying to throw blame, but this is the more likely scenario. Now, I have a checklist that I go through before that first drive, and it includes checking the front end nuts and cotter keys twice! This way I don't need to worry about :drive2:

Shiny Side Up!
Bill

[CarlC]

Chad,

That's not fun!

Check to see if the cotter pin sheared off with the remnants in the hole.

I have two new ball joints, McQuay-Norris, and you can have them if you like.

[dropit69]

holy cow that could have been ugly..glad everyone is ok..cars can always be fixed..ain't that the fun of owning them..lol

[Chad-1stGen]

I'd be suprised if the nut was left to loose. I really think there is a greater chance I overtightened it but who knows now. I did the suspension work on a lift right at eye level.... the LBJ had 3,500 miles on it and had already been on this trip once before.

Carl, thanks for the offer. I already replaced the LBJ just to be safe before driving home.

Yup, the more I think about it the more I'm amazed at where it happened. Almost could not have asked for a better spot.

[BADVELLE]

Wow, been there before, except I forgot to put in the cotter pin after all the work, luckily it happened while taking off from a stop sign, hit a small pot hole, bang, down she went!

[ProTouring442]

Wow, been there before, except I forgot to put in the cotter pin after all the work, luckily it happened while taking off from a stop sign, hit a small pot hole, bang, down she went!

I'm starting to feel a bit better about having done this, since there seem to be others who have done the same thing!

In any case, glad no damage was done to you or you car!

Shiny Side up!
Bill

[Boulder69]

The front locking hub exploded once on my 72 Jimmy. By the time I pulled into the driveway the caliper was the only thing holding the front wheel on the truck. It pretty much all failed for good on about the 4th pump of the hi-lift jack. Watching that wheel fall right off made me chuckle and shudder at the same time. Sometimes we just get lucky I guess. -eric

Damn I miss that truck....

[bowtie65]

The same thing happened to me on the 06 Hot Rod Power Tour. Pulling into a parking spot at the Harrisburg Hilton in Pennsylvania. The car just fell to the ground. When I got out to look, The lower ball joint and the nut was laying on the ground. The tire pushed into the inner fenderwell and rinkled the fender.:pat: the cotterpin was sheared off. After I replaced all the balljoints, I tackwelded the lowers.

[Co4416]

I can relate:
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gifhttps://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif
Happened while I was going about 45mph down a rural road relatively recently after I bought it. I went over a hill and the car raised up and the front slammed down. Its not an experience id like to have again anytime soon. Thankfully the road was straight...

[Steve1968LS2]

wow.. glad you're ok and that your car isn't very damaged.. if that had happened at speed.. yikes!

[baz67]

From the "How Not to Lower Your Car" files .

I can relate:
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gifhttps://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif
Happened while I was going about 45mph down a rural road relatively recently after I bought it. I went over a hill and the car raised up and the front slammed down. Its not an experience id like to have again anytime soon. Thankfully the road was straight...

[jknight16]

Apparently this is a more widespread problem than I would have figured... Given that we now have individual instances of the same thing happening to 3 people in this thread alone, it seems like there should be something we can learn from here? Any extra precautions you guys can think of?

I'm rebuilding my front end right now as well, so this is the sort of thing I envision happening if I don't double and triple check everything. Scary... :drive2:

Torqued to spec....check
Cotter pin...check
What else can ya do?

[6'9"Witha69]

Torqued to spec....check
Cotter pin...check
What else can ya do?:fingersx:

[MrQuick]

...I think a big problem is people backing the nut up to align the cotter pin hole. Torque to spec then continue tightening till the cotter pin hole lines up.

[ProTouring442]

I have also found that it can take more the "spec torque" to seat the taper. Try torquing to spec, then backing off on the nut and see if the taper has set, the retorque if it has and install the cotter key.

Shiny Side Up!
Bill

[tumper93]

Torque to factory SPEC, not YOUR spec!!!! Working at the dealership for 14 years now I have never seen this happen to a factory never removed ball joint nut or suspension nut. Those torque numbers are there for a reason and if you follow them you will never have a problem but if you don't that is another story. I found out the hard way too in high school when I didn't tightene the lower ball joint good and left the cotter pin out, mine let go at 55mph on the highway, but only killed the wheel. To do it right go and buy a quality torque wrench not a parts store special or a crapsman, find a mac, snap on or matco truck and buy a good one and you will not have to worry about things!!!

[jknight16]

Good advice fellas. I was a bit surprised that the instructions for the AFX spindle only call for 41 ft/lbs on the lower ball joint and 31 on the upper. But that's what it says so that's what I did!!