damn....

ya, i went to and called every parts store and no one sells a lower ball joint for replacement. Mazda dealership wants some insane amount of money (~$400) for a new lower control arm.

anyone happen to know what size and pitch that bolt is off hand? I think it's 1.5 pitch, but don't know the bolt size....maybe 14 or 15 mm? All the dies I have are too small.

i was being a dumbass when i knew better and my arms are screwed now. The 2 very end threads on one are no good, and on the other side it will start so it could probably be restored with a strong die. I was not thinking and didn't put a nut on the bolt before banging it out of the hub/upright. I guess everybody makes mistakes, but I'm pissed b/c I know better than this and now I'm probably screwed to go to a Rotary Focus day at Motorsports Ranch this Saturday.

I realized after I got them off and calmed down (was getting upset at the car) that the threads would be a little screwed up, but didn't realize how bad they are until after I pressed the new bushings in and was about the reinstall the arms.

you may now laugh and tell me how stupid i have been

IDEAS:

If the threads won't go over well with a die, I could:

1. cut the top of the bolt off - the threads further down are fine, but this makes me lose the safety part in the whole castle nut/cotter pin assembly.

2. grind down the top few threads so that the nut can slide past them. This would allow me to keep the castle nut/cotter pin assembly. The only thing I am worried about with this is whether or not the nut will have enough threads to hold onto. I realize it only needs ~4 threads to be good engineering-wise, but is the castle nut even touching those top few threads when it is fully torqued down? I would think it would be far enough down to only be using the threads around the holes in the bolt and further down from there.

let me know what y'all think

If I can't fix the threads (which is likely at least on one side) I think I might just wrap safety wire around it just for a little peace of mind. It wont be "officially" safety wired, but just be something for a 2nd line of insurance.

-Nic

 

Yeah just try filing or grinking off the damaged threads. Running a die over them might be difficult.

 

I had this problem with my low miles used control arms.

The moron who took it out used a hammer to tap against the bolt, squishing the threads together.

What I did was to buy a metric tap and die kit from www.harborfreight.com for about $70.00 and retapped the threads. Do it slowly and carefully. It's a 1.5 and 14 mm.

 

As long as there are enough threads to fully engage the nut after torqueing I would not be concerned. You may have issues in cleaning the threads with a die if your ball joints are very worn because if the threads are really buggered you have no way to hold the stud and keep it from turning while running the die over the threads.

A thread file may be the best bet (and take the most work )

 

One side I think is fixable with a good die, the other is definitely going to take some "special" work.

 

They make dies that "clamp" around the stud, just for things like this where the end is fucked up and you can't chase the threads with a regular die. They just clamp on in the middle, or on the bottom and you run them to the end. Works great

 

ya, i think it is called a split die or something like that

I called a few machine shops and no one around here has one or sells them. I'm just going to go up to the harbor freight in Waco and get one of their metric die sets with the M14x1.5 size I need and some other little things to make it easier to "fix" this thing. It gives me a good excuse to buy this grinder i've been wanting....i'm going to hate myself later for putting this on the credit card...

 

If you get get to Grapevine or downtown Dallas Elliot's Hardware can take care of you.

 

Snap on, MAC, or Matco all sell the split type dies. Just stop a tool truck somewhere and buy them

 

I'm in Killeen - Dallas is 160+ miles away. Waco is only 60. I got some stuff from HF that I should be able to fix it with. I was going to get a machine shop to do it while I was flying today, but they all charge too much by the hour and none would give me any sort of estimate. I'd rather do it myself to make sure it is going to work. If it doesn't....then I'm the only one to blame and I like it that way.

93R1 - I called the Matco guy (there is no local SnapOn or MAC guy from what I am told) and he doesn't have any taps in M14x1.5.

I'm going to grind the end down a little bit so I can get a die started on it and then go from there...should work real horrowshow. I took before pics...I'll try to get some after ones too.

-Nic

 

i finally got to playing with the parts....

it was about 100x easier than it looked like it was going to be - I chased those threads better than an addict chasing the dragon!

no excess work required.

 

Sweet, nice to see the whole process through. You did it all in one afternoon? Couldn't have been too bad then.

 

Great, so does that mean you will be out to play on Saturday?

 

Glad it worked out for ya. Let me know when those parts show up at your casa......

 

Try a file first...file a chamfer on the end of the shaft. File TOWARDS the threads not away, this is important...

 

That was my plan before I tried just taking a die to them. I was just going to use a grinder instead of a file. THe one that I thought would clean up did so pretty easily, but the other one I was pretty positive was going to need some major work like that.....all it really required was a little finessing with the die. All in all it took me maybe 15-20 minutes to fix?? What took me all afternoon was driving up to Waco and back and then going to fly until around dinner time. I also ran a tap across the castle nuts to make sure they'd give me a nice clean contact. I laughed for a while after I was done that it went so smoothly- I didn't even take the damned grinder out of the box.

All I need to do now is to get a bolt for the rear I-arm (which Rich is referring to that he sent to me and should be here tomorrow) and then torque everything down to spec and I'll be tootin down the road to get an alignment.

cpa7man - as long as I can get to an alignment shop to get the car in line, a mig welding machine to make a new downpipe, and access to a wideband to make sure I'm still cool on my AFR with the new DP, I'll be out there. I could be out there on this downpipe, but it is making me nervous all the backpressure it is making - that is for another thread though.

The threads/bolts were really screwed before. Every auto parts place and car and machine shop I showed them to told me I wouldn't be able to fix them.....i said BAH HUMBUG to that....