I took my car in for an alignment this morning after replacing the front ball joint, and the ****** fell out while they were pulling it into the parking lot and supposidly fucked my fender up.

I swear I had that damn pinch-bolt tight as hell (used grade 8 as well) and I'm now extremly pissed. They say they can't get it started either (I think it's just flooded).

The guy at the shop called and is telling me I need new steering knuckle at the least, how much does one of those usually go for? I can't find one listed on Mazdatrix and I have a feeling it's not going to be cheap.

 

Errr... junkyard?

--Gary

 

''PROPER TORQUE'' is your friend!

also you might have better luck sourcing a knuckle/spindle from a junkyard or someone here parting out a shell.

 

****, just got a call back. They won't fix it there if I buy a part here, so I'm going to have to tow it. They want $300 for one from a salvage yard, or $700 from the dealer, **** that.

I'm just buying a cheap car for now and am going to have to shelf the 7 for awhile..

 

The problem was that the orginal pinch bolt was stuck solid in the knuckle, so we drilled it out and ran a grade 8 bolt/lockwasher/nut combo through it and cranked it with the breaker bar until the pinch section move it and we pounded on it a few times to make sure it was tight.

I had to do the same thing on my 88 Accord and that repair lasted two years....

 

A good question just came into mind.

I know I suck for not getting that tight enough, but don't you think they would have noticed that while they were doing adjustments? They weren't able to correct the toe in the rear either, and I'm thinking they didn't know that it's locked that way when she's sitting.

Shouldn't they have said something during their inspection instead of doing the alignment and taking it out?

Last time they called me up to see what I was gonna do they were major ******** about me doing the work. I dunno, what do you guys think?

 

I think the mistake you made was in your choice of bolt size. See, not only is the stocker supposed to pinch the clamp, but it is designed to go into a little dimple on the balljoint so that, even if the pinch clamp comes loose a little, it still can't fall off. Same as the steering column, IIRC...it has a bolt that, even if loosened, sits in a groove cut into the side of the shaft and until that bolt is completely removed, you can't seperate the 2. It's a double security feature. I think your bolt was not of proper size to seat into this dimple, and thus it just slipped out of place...the pinch clamp alone won't hold, since it's a tapered surface it'll just work it's way out.

Just get a stock bolt or a bolt the exact diameter of the stocker and use that. But, if you drilled out the holes in the spindle too large, then this might not work...because you've changed the location of the bolt in relation to that dimple, if you know what Im saying.

 

I don't mean to sound like an ***, but right there is why I fear for some of the people on this forum. That is a critical area to the safety of the car, and fasteners as well as torque are very important. It's possible that you actually cracked the pinch area, which is why your ball joint fell out.

It should have been fixed properly from the beginning. Imagine what could have happened if it fell out on the highway (and you slid accross 3 lanes into a busload of children....).

 

Yeah, I definatly have to use a larger bolt. I really think I'm just going to grab a steering knuckle off of someone's parts car. I want to check the spindle anyways. I think mine is off by a bit (caster-wise).

For now I'm gonna drill it out further (I didn't drill the full diameter of the bolt off, but I did drill straight through that original bolt. I'll make sure it's on that dimple you speak of.

I also considered just welding it in. My floorboards are going to rot out before I ever have to replace that portion again.

As far as the safety side of things go, I was just going with what I knew, and I've replaced a couple of lower ball joints on other vehicles before and on my Accord I had to use the same bolt and nut method as I did here, but I did use a bolt close to the stock diameter which I think was the biggest problem here. Anyways, it's over and done with, my bad.