Help! Upper ball joint keeps turning when installing UCA

I'm trying to finish installing my SPC UCA but the upper ball joint pin keeps turning when I tighten the castle nut (see pic below). Is there a way to hold it in place so I can tighten the castle nut?

 

Gotta put enough pressure in the taper so it “locks” in to tighten. Maybe try jacking up the lower control arm and pull down on upper arm while you tighten the nut. Sometimes there is also an Allen you can stick into the threaded end of balljoint and use box wrench.

 

Thanks for the tip! I'll give it another try tomorrow.

 

It spins if you use a box wrench, use a battery operated (not the super heavy duty ones) impact it’ll go on.

 

Impact gun will do it. Or use clamping force to get the taper to bind and it will go. Gl.

 

I was about to say that’s cool of you to join the forum to help out the OP. You’ve been a member for like 6 and a half years lol

 

He is one of the quiet ones.....

 

I ran into this when installing the nut. I used a ratchet strap around the spindle and anchored the other end to frame in the rear and ratcheted the strap enough to put pressure on the ball joint and I was able to tighten the nut and torque it. Was it the ideal method? no, but it was all I had at the moment and it worked.

 

Applying pressure between the ball joint and mating surface usually works. I like heating the nut so it expands a little and that helps. Best thing though is a small very fast air powered impact gun. This is the only air gun I own and I bought it for specifically for ball joint nuts, it hasn't let me down yet.

$140 Ingersoll Rand 15QMAX 3/8" Drive, Air Impact Wrench, Quiet, Ultra Compact, 475 ft-lbs Nut-busting Torque, Maintenance Duty, Pistol Grip, Standard Anvil

https://www.amazon.com/Ingersoll-Rand-15QMAX-Ultra-Compact-Impactool/dp/B01EN7GE78

 

Think about it, 6.5 year olds today have spoken before him! So elusive it’s cool lol

 

Thanks everyone! I was able to tighten the bolt by jacking up the lower control arm and pulling down on UCA with all my weight as I was tightening the castle nut. It worked! Didn't have this issue on the passenger side, torqued it up just fine. Although getting the long UCA bolt out was a PITA on the passenger side. Anyway, this job took way longer that it should have... My front suspension is finally finished. Ya'll are awesome!