Hello all, I own a '90 PU with the V6, 4x4, 4''lift on 33's with 301K. I'm taking apart my tie rod end from the steering knuckle and i made the mistake of using a hammer to dislodge the stud from the knuckle. now the tapered stud seems to be firmly attached to the ball joint but it spins so freely i can't get the nut to torque up. Is this normal or is something broken? how can I create the torque necessary to tighten it up? Any help would be appreciated.
learning about ball joints
Nov 27, 2004
2 Replies
Using a hammer to seperate a ball joint is a well known procedure. There are some caveats like try to hit the outside of the female end and leave the nut on loose so you don't mess up the threads if you accidentally hit it. And also try to hit inline with the supporting arm of the female end. Usually when you tighten the nut it pulls the tapered stud in and wedges it and I have no problem tightening it. So I figure you either damaged the male or female wedge or messed up the thread so the nut pulls the male taper around. If it is the thread you could try to clean it up with a die.
Ahh I see. We ended up just pulling the stud downwards to lock it back into the ball joint. I didn't know about the wedge. Thanks for the help! Great newsgroup guys, I've learned a lot just from browsing through the threads.
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