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While replacing my CV joint, which went well, and by well I mean f--- that job, I stripped all the threads of the ball joint pinch bolt when putting it back in. I guess it wasn't lined up well enough, and after the many hours of frusteration I tried to just hammer it in there. Big mistake

So I'm looking at either getting it re-threaded at a machine shop or just going to a junkyard for the same bolt.

My question is: is it a very specific bolt? I can't just go out and buy a regular bolt to replace it with, right?

Its actually a very specific bolt. you won't find a generic one with the proper shoulder, or in the proper grade.

junk yard bolt it is.

Im not sure which bolt you are talking about but you can rethread it using a tap set.

Its the bolt that pinches the ball joint in the spindle. Its a grade 10 bolt. You'd need a decent tap/dye set and you'd want to use a smaller nut then, too.

If that sucker comes loose, you are in for a world of hurt.

if you just smashed it in there, what makes you think the threads in the ball joint itself are still ok...?

i'd just change out the whole thing now. they are so cheap for our cars now and it will come with the bolt you are looking for anyway

ninjajim4 wrote:if you just smashed it in there, what makes you think the threads in the ball joint itself are still ok...?

i'd just change out the whole thing now. they are so cheap for our cars now and it will come with the bolt you are looking for anyway

There're no threads on the ball-joint post, it just gets clamped into the spindle... It's the threads in the spindle that should probably be cleaned out with a tap.

You're all on crack.

The bolt shoulder fits clean through the spindle and the ball joint channel.

It nut is the only thing that touches the threads.

sorry guys you are right, i misremembered. *sets crack pipe down*

Ryan wrote:You're all on crack.

The bolt shoulder fits clean through the spindle and the ball joint channel.

It nut is the only thing that touches the threads.

You're on crack! Country boy... And you're also right, now that I think about it. The bolt goes straight through the spindle, and the nut threads onto it.

End of discussion. Get the proper bolt.

It seems weird to me that such a crucial suspension point only has a single bolt and nut holding it together.

Getting a junkyard bolt today! Thanks.

Thats why the have two degrees of safety...

The pinch action 54 ft lbs and the shoulder in the channel.

Manual called for 43 foot pounds.

Got a junkyard bolt and nut and it worked perfectly! CV axle job is done, and it makes those terrible sounds no more. God, what a pain in the a-- it was to get the old axle out. Ended up using a 2 foot pry bar and.. My foot! Put all I had into it and popped that sucker out with a lot of force, after fighting for hours.

But it's done! And I'm happy.

E: Now the only thing to fix is the driver side back wheel not doing anything when I apply the e brake. Turns out the cable isn't moving, but why.. Shitty thing is it's above the resonator so I have to tear my exhaust out

MattZig wrote:It seems weird to me that such a crucial suspension point only has a single bolt and nut holding it together.

I thought the same thing when I first had to tackle this job but it does work flawlessly if you did everything right. Next time make sure to line up the lower ball joint dead on and the pinch bolt should slide through without an issue. The LBJ doesn't actually go through to the very end of the pinch hole, you have to look until the ridge makes a perfect circle for the bolt to slide through! Glad you got everything sorted though.

MattZig wrote:Manual called for 43 foot pounds.

Just being nice:

The manual cites a range of numbers for the torque spec of all bolts. In the LBJ pinch bolt case, 32 - 43 ft lbs.

This is because no torque wrench is the same, or even nescessarily accurate. If you don't know jack about how accurate your wrench is, your best bet is to put it in the centre. Thats 37.5 ft lbs in this case.

I'm just dumb and used the Nm numbers instead of ft lbs by accident in my previous post. Call me stoopid.

Hey stupid!

Yeah, I always shoot for the middle. I have one of those non-clicker type wrenches, so the real value is never 100% accurate, depending where the needle rests on the bar and how precise my angle of view to it is. The axle nut called for around 200 foot pounds (170-230 or something similiar) but my wrench only went to 140! Torqued it to 140 then put the impact on it for a quick second, gonna take it down to a shop to get it torqued correctly just in case.