Honda Car Forum

Hi there,

My girlfriends car is an 87 prelude. This sunday, the
balljoint popped on the driver side. It shredded the
inner CV boot in the process, but that is not why I am
here. We have had the car apart several times, to do
trannie/clutch related work. The problem is, the lower
ball joint on the driver side is obviously not OEM, and
does not have a nut on it that can accept a cotter pin.
The stud is not OEM size, so I can't even go to honda to
get the nut.


It is a Nylon locking nut, and the even funnier thing is
that it takes a 3/4" socket to take it off. (Standard
socket on an import?? should be metric, no?)

Anyways, I have searched up and down this city for a fine
thread Nylon locking nut of the same size, to no avail. Nobody makes it, according to all the bolt guys here. I
even talked to a manufacturer, and he said he could do it,
but I would have to buy 10000 of them....

My question is, does anyone have any bright ideas as to
I could fasten the old nut (or a new non-locking one)
without actually replacing the balljoint? I was thinking
of drilling a hole in the ball joint stud to make my own
cotter pin hole. Would that work?

How about my even more desperate solution, spot weld the
nut to the ball joint stud. Then if we ever have to do the
balljoint, we'll just have to chisel off the weld, maybe
have to cut the old ball joint. (and replace it at that point).

The car has 200k kms on it, so we don't want to spend a
tonne of cash on it, any ideas would be welcome! (other
than just "replace the ball joint". I am looking for
something a little more creative...)

t

disallow wrote:
>
> Hi there,
>
> My girlfriends car is an 87 prelude. This sunday, the
> balljoint popped on the driver side. It shredded the
> inner CV boot in the process, but that is not why I am
> here. We have had the car apart several times, to do
> trannie/clutch related work. The problem is, the lower
> ball joint on the driver side is obviously not OEM, and
> does not have a nut on it that can accept a cotter pin.
> The stud is not OEM size, so I can't even go to honda to
> get the nut.
>
> It is a Nylon locking nut, and the even funnier thing is
> that it takes a 3/4" socket to take it off. (Standard
> socket on an import?? should be metric, no?)

3/4" is roughly the same as 19mm. Check the threads with a thread pitch
gauge, they're probably metric as well.

> Anyways, I have searched up and down this city for a fine
> thread Nylon locking nut of the same size, to no avail. Nobody makes it,
> according to all the bolt guys here. I even talked to a manufacturer,
> and he said he could do it, but I would have to buy 10000 of them....

Forget the nylon lock nut. It's failed once already, why repeat this
situation?

> My question is, does anyone have any bright ideas as to
> I could fasten the old nut (or a new non-locking one)
> without actually replacing the balljoint? I was thinking
> of drilling a hole in the ball joint stud to make my own
> cotter pin hole. Would that work?

You should be able to get a castle nut which would allow you to use a cotter
key. You could drill the current ball joint stud if it doesn't have holes
in it already. Lining up the holes could be tricky so I would use a castle
nut as a drilling guide.

> How about my even more desperate solution, spot weld the
> nut to the ball joint stud. Then if we ever have to do the
> balljoint, we'll just have to chisel off the weld, maybe
> have to cut the old ball joint. (and replace it at that point).
>
> The car has 200k kms on it, so we don't want to spend a
> tonne of cash on it, any ideas would be welcome! (other
> than just "replace the ball joint". I am looking for
> something a little more creative...)

Red Loctite might hold it cut I wouldn't put my complete trust in it
especially with something as critical as a ball joint.

Eric

Is there room enough to double nut the bolt, and lock them together?

Eric wrote:
>
> disallow wrote:
> >
> > Hi there,
> >
> > My girlfriends car is an 87 prelude. This sunday, the
> > balljoint popped on the driver side. It shredded the
> > inner CV boot in the process, but that is not why I am
> > here. We have had the car apart several times, to do
> > trannie/clutch related work. The problem is, the lower
> > ball joint on the driver side is obviously not OEM, and
> > does not have a nut on it that can accept a cotter pin.
> > The stud is not OEM size, so I can't even go to honda to
> > get the nut.
> >
> > It is a Nylon locking nut, and the even funnier thing is
> > that it takes a 3/4" socket to take it off. (Standard
> > socket on an import?? should be metric, no?)
>
> 3/4" is roughly the same as 19mm. Check the threads with a thread pitch
> gauge, they're probably metric as well.
>
> > Anyways, I have searched up and down this city for a fine
> > thread Nylon locking nut of the same size, to no avail. Nobody makes it,
> > according to all the bolt guys here. I even talked to a manufacturer,
> > and he said he could do it, but I would have to buy 10000 of them....
>
> Forget the nylon lock nut. It's failed once already, why repeat this
> situation?
>
> > My question is, does anyone have any bright ideas as to
> > I could fasten the old nut (or a new non-locking one)
> > without actually replacing the balljoint? I was thinking
> > of drilling a hole in the ball joint stud to make my own
> > cotter pin hole. Would that work?
>
> You should be able to get a castle nut which would allow you to use a cotter
> key. You could drill the current ball joint stud if it doesn't have holes
> in it already. Lining up the holes could be tricky so I would use a castle
> nut as a drilling guide.
>
> > How about my even more desperate solution, spot weld the
> > nut to the ball joint stud. Then if we ever have to do the
> > balljoint, we'll just have to chisel off the weld, maybe
> > have to cut the old ball joint. (and replace it at that point).
> >
> > The car has 200k kms on it, so we don't want to spend a
> > tonne of cash on it, any ideas would be welcome! (other
> > than just "replace the ball joint". I am looking for
> > something a little more creative...)
>
> Red Loctite might hold it cut I wouldn't put my complete trust in it
> especially with something as critical as a ball joint.
>
> Eric

Well I double nutted it, and used some loctite. Hope that
does it!

t