Sinbox down..

**NickyG** · 06-03-2011, 09:22 PM

To be honest this scares the crap outta me.. i neally had my EF do that to me.. luckily it got fixed before it broke.. I'm guessing there was no signs of problems before it happened...

**jennie285** · 06-03-2011, 09:47 PM

Originally Posted by NickyG

To be honest this scares the crap outta me.. i neally had my EF do that to me.. luckily it got fixed before it broke.. I'm guessing there was no signs of problems before it happened...

No there were no signs it just happened the front end dropped on the bitumen and ground to a halt...you can regularly check the nuts and the split pin is in place, ours were checked 12months ago bearing in mind the van has been off the road for 6 of those months....and it scared me a lot....

:knockout:

**NickyG** · 07-03-2011, 09:34 PM

is it a common thing to happen.. this is probably my biggest fear with driving cars... Regular checks i suppose are in order

**wbute** · 07-03-2011, 09:45 PM

Would it be possible to get rid of the castleated or nylock nut and use a proper high tensile nut and lock nut instead? Seems the nuts are the problem with these balljoints now. they used to just break through wear and usually only at low speed. The nut can strip at any speed. Seems like a real dodgy set up to me.
Perhaps there is an opening to make some decent quality ball joints.

**rallyvan** · 07-03-2011, 10:38 PM

Does anyone know if the castleated nuts are just working loose or whether the nuts are cracking and failing? Wondering if the slots in the castleated nuts don't have any radius at the bottom slot (when compared to previous replacement units) and this is what is causing the failure. The lack of radius leading to cracks around the base of the slot area. When I re-assembly my van I think I'll see if I can get some from a the local engineering supply house hopefully they will be a bit better quality.
I use to help a bloke with an EL Falcon rally car that had a bad habbit of braking Watts linkage pins in the rear end. This was usually induced by giving the odd bank a tap at speed. We found the standard Ford pins had a square shoulder at the base of of the threads which lead to a stress riser. We had some new pins made with radius at the base of all the threads and the failure rate decreased dramaticly.
You have to be greatful that the failure happened at low speed so the damage was minimal. If the ball joints were replaced during the resto process it might be worth getting in contact with the supplier and letting them know. They might of had a bad batch of nuts.
Anthony

**Nigelk777** · 07-03-2011, 11:09 PM

Just a tip ... avoid nylocs on ball joints if you can. I used them on one of my cars and the ball joints just spun when I tried to undo them. No amount of cajoling would get them off so out came the angry grinder to cut the nuts in half ... I've now used new (ordinary) nuts and simply drilled a hole through them and then used a good split pin. Nige

**James** · 08-03-2011, 09:33 AM

Originally Posted by Nigelk777

Just a tip ... avoid nylocs on ball joints if you can. I used them on one of my cars and the ball joints just spun when I tried to undo them. No amount of cajoling would get them off so out came the angry grinder to cut the nuts in half ... I've now used new (ordinary) nuts and simply drilled a hole through them and then used a good split pin. Nige

If you've drilled your own hole through the nut (and ball joint) you may have weakened it. Another way would be to use two nuts and lock together.

**jennie285** · 08-03-2011, 08:57 AM

Originally Posted by rallyvan

Does anyone know if the castleated nuts are just working loose or whether the nuts are cracking and failing? Wondering if the slots in the castleated nuts don't have any radius at the bottom slot (when compared to previous replacement units) and this is what is causing the failure.
You have to be greatful that the failure happened at low speed so the damage was minimal. If the ball joints were replaced during the resto process it might be worth getting in contact with the supplier and letting them know. They might of had a bad batch of nuts.
Anthony

Rodney's brother did all the work, he is the service manager at the local ford dealership...he is at a loss as why it happened...Rodney never found the nut he did have a look for it to see if it was stripped....but the otherside had a split pin in it and was in place, so maybe that broke...mystery....