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I replaced my lower ball and torqued the bolt on both side the cotter pin barely contacts the pin is this normal ? Also Is it safe to put the pin vertical?
Ive come across this a couple of times now. Not sure if the manufactures are not making the castle nuts deep enough or if the taper on the joints themselves is less so the joint recesses more. Also, some of the cotter pins are a lil undersized from what ive seen in the kits.
The cotter pin is there to make sure the castle nut cant come loose. From what i see in your picture the cotter pin hole seems to be interfering enough to keep the nut from backing off (again from your picture angle.)
You can tap the round head of the cotter pin when its in place to mushroom it into place a lil more and then bend one prong down and one prong up on the cotter pin ends. You want the cotter pin to interfere tight in the castleations so that it cant come loose.
My buddy actually had to get some grade 8 washers for his upper ball joints to put under the castle nut because the cotter pin hole was off that far.
When using castle nuts your supposed to use the method on the right below for orientating the cotter pin. (If you wanna get technical the ends of the pin should not extend past half the way through the shaft and not past the depth of the nut). Ive found some scary things being used in castle nuts.
Last edited by mysixtynine; Mar 14, 2020 at 05:23 PM.
Lower Ball Joint Cotterpin
