Vitara ball joint nut

Speak to Wessex Fasteners, Signal Way, Old Town Swindon..

JB

Great place - thank you very much :)

don't hit it, just drill it through.

They are indeed. Brian, the boss is an absolute star! He will truly talk the hind leg off a donkey!

JB

If it's a typical castle nut and tight split pin, the simple solution is to not bother trying to remove it. Just knock both ends of the split pin out of the way, so you can get a socket or ring spanner on the nut, and undo it. You'll shear the split pin in the process, but the remains of the split pin are easily removed afterwards. IME it hardly damages the threads at all. Certainly not enough to mean the nut can't be reused if you're not intending to replace the ball joint and nut. Mike.

Ha! Yes, I tried this.

I always do what Mike has suggested in another post - shear the split pins off and remove them later (normally with a pin punch). This time though, the pin punch would not push the remains through, so I tried drilling, but the drill wouldn't go anywhere (as though toughened steel).

I finally got around to trying to attack it from the other side and this drilled out easily, so I'm really confused as to what stopped it first time.

Hi Mike,

Yes - this is my standard practise too (having been taught by an old REME engineer)!

I just struggled with the "easy to remove afterwards" bit ;)

Cheers, Mark

I'm an ex REME vehicle mechanic myself, but I knew the technique before I joined.

A suitable diameter nail with the point flattened with a hammer or file works every time for removing the bit left in the thread. :-) Mike.