bolt stripped?!

While installing a new front driver's side axle, I think I may have stripped one of the four bolts that hold the lower ball joint to the steering knuckle! (I was torquing them to 60ft/lbs)

I have already seen the damage when the lower ball joint goes out and DO NOT want to experience that!

Where can I get a new steering knuckle?

Any suggestions are welcome!

 

did you try putting one of the other bolts in the "stripped" hole and see if it tightens? You may have just messed up the bolt. I have done that one, I always keep a few extra around.

 

New bolts are a buck fiddy from toyota.

 

Pay attention boys & girls.
When you don't put the right bolt into the right hole it costs you about 2 hours of work to resolve the problem.
There IS a DIFFERENCE in the lower steering knuckle bolt lengths;
You must put the LONG bolts into the holes closest to the rotor and the SHORT bolts into the remaining two inboard holes.
OTHERWISE there is not enough thread engagement and the bolt strips.
(Which is OK since the bolts are a few bucks and a NEW steering knuckle is over $300!)
I had to clean out the threads in the knuckle (where the bolt stripped) with a tap M10 x 1.25.
After that, everything went right back together - with red locktite going on the new bolts too.
Thanks for the input, I'm back on the road again!

 

I'd have used blue. At the proper torque, neither is needed (and the lubrication provided by the Loctite affected your torque readings, you are actually higher than spec).

Problem with red is it's a complete bitch to clean out of the threads during reassembly, and it's going to take significantly more than 60ft/lbs to break those bolts free next time.

 

The first bolts that came from the factory on the LBJ were coated with a green thread locker equivalent to blue locktite.
I use it every time I have that front end apart even out on the trail.

Red Locktite is a tad bit overboard.

 

Red may be overboard, I agree but, I hope this is not a part that I 'regularly' disassemble.
So, the overkill is okay with me.

 

I stripped the same bolts when doing my CV's...they are actually horrible to thread back in.

But, when I replaced my lower ball joints recently with Moog versions, I noticed that the supplied bolts were all the same length??

 

glad you got it fixed, I hope you're ready to bust out the torch next time those bolts have to come out

 

I'm no stranger to using the torch when necessary.

 

Eh, well when you wheel as hard as I do, and you expect to break the CV's, you don't want to make the job any harder.

That's fine. They're probably the shorter length. There's probably only a 5mm difference between the long ones and the short ones. Still plenty of thread engagement for the inner two. Don't sweat it.

 

Guys, same issue here. i went to tighten one of the bolts - one of the two that don't come out the other end - and it stripped - last 1/4 of an inch or so of the bolt. so what are my options? can i use the M10 x 1.25 tap option to clean out the threads? not sure what exactly happened since it appears to have stripped inside the end of the knuckle hole...not the beginning.

should have left it as is i guess. was trying to torque everything and just kept wrenching like an idiot!!

 

also, bolts were all the same length for what its worth.

 

All my bolts were same length

 

I've always used red. It's not that hard to get out. Don't even need a torch.