Lower ball joint nuts missing or fell off??

[Fordified1]

Alright. Extra ugga duggas for me.

Don’t tighten them too tight, they’re not very big. I’d say the OP’s example were never torqued at all. They were probably put on hand tight and skipped the torque somehow. There have been multiple instances of various nuts and bolts not being tightened at the factory and parts found in the skid plates etc. there was a recall on the upper ball joint and everybody immediately checked their ball joints, but I guess that was a couple years ago..

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[Fordified1]

We won’t talk about my dumbass leaving the upper left ball joint nut hand tight and heading to the Alpine loop in Colorado. My Broncos sat on Imogene pass for two days before I had the parts to fix it.
Supposedly all those lock nuts on the front end are one and done so you’re supposed to replace them every time you take them off but they’re pretty good at locking multiple times.

Also, I would like to mention those ball joint threads are long enough you could double nut them if you felt the need after installing your new lift or whatever.
Back in the day all ball joints had castle nuts with a cotter pin. Jeeps still do.

 

[mrjking2000]

I gotta say, I'm not so sure this is 'as built by Ford,' since with 13k miles on it it's already got a new set of tires - those aren't factory tires on any model I'm aware of. If it's been lifted or any of the suspension has been worked on, without a cross-hole for a cotter key there's a good bet those were 'torque to yield' nuts, meaning they should have been replaced when it was taken apart.

I have a sneaking suspicion that what you encountered with that rig (presuming it's not yours) is someone who isn't telling the entire truth.

yeah just going off what i was told but you have a valid point there.

 

[telenerd]

Hum makes me want to check the torque on my entire front and rear end. You got me paranoid man.

 

[mrjking2000]

Hum makes me want to check the torque on my entire front and rear end. You got me paranoid man.

scarry stuff especially after i got movement out of mine too.

 

[CactusBob]

You can clearly see various hammer marks on the knuckle from someone doing previous ball joint separation work. Stop it.

 

[CactusBob]

Isn't this a threaded-body shock?? Suspension work has already been done.....

 

[mrjking2000]

so then what we've got here is a failure to replace the one time use lower balljoint nuts, and/or torque them to the required spec. good info!!

 

[87-Z28]

Critical suspension bolts should be properly torqued, periodically checked, and retorqued as needed. Especially if you wheel often. Every time out is wise. Also suspension components should get a look over. This is not hard to do. But we all get lazy.

I don’t think I would put all the blame on one-time use bolts. I reused my hardware when swapping coilovers and haven’t had an issue. I am sure there are many others like me.

 

[SierraBronco]

I don’t think I would put all the blame on one-time use bolts. I reused my hardware when swapping coilovers and haven’t had an issue. I am sure there are many others like me.

Yeaaahhhhhh. That’s me. But I did just get some new bolts for the rear upper arm frame mounts. Figured they’ve been torqued a few times. Might be time to replace.

 

[87-Z28]

Yeaaahhhhhh. That’s me. But I did just get some new bolts for the rear upper arm frame mounts. Figured they’ve been torqued a few times. Might be time to replace.

Absolutely. Replace the bolts. Not saying it is good practice to reuse them. I was just being lazy. Just saying Bolts don’t get all the blame.

As much as you have retorqued suspension bolts they should be toast by now.

 

[Brian_B]

Just checked - my nuts are still there

 

[Fordified1]

Critical suspension bolts should be properly torqued, periodically checked, and retorqued as needed. Especially if you wheel often. Every time out is wise. Also suspension components should get a look over. This is not hard to do. But we all get lazy.

I don’t think I would put all the blame on one-time use bolts. I reused my hardware when swapping coilovers and haven’t had an issue. I am sure there are many others like me.

I blamed the 2nd use of a lock nut on my deal and then looked at some pics taken during my coilovers install and the nut in question had clearly not been torqued. I have to assume I left it hand tight. All those lock nuts seem to work really well multiple times, even to the point of possible galding of the bolt threads (a forum member confided in me that he had this happen).

 

[mrjking2000]

You can clearly see various hammer marks on the knuckle from someone doing previous ball joint separation work. Stop it.

actually i've got more information now, those may look like hammer marks but they're not. he put the aftermarket springs on and never pulled that lower nut off, just pulled the upper and leaned the knuckle out to swap springs. so it was indeed "as-installed by ford" on the lower ball joint. is there maybe a possibility of rocks making contact with that lower part by the balljoint when rock crawling? I don't know... but the mystery continues. all parts are on order to get this repaired, should be here soon so that's nice.

 

[Tonka Bronka]

Seems like there was a recall or TSB associated with these, but it was for a very limited number of Broncos. Maybe they let that guy on the assembly line have his old job back.

I saw that yesterday. Bronco Sports and Mavericks involved. Possibly more coming?

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