UBJ excessive threads showing (castle nut below cotter pin)

Hey guys. Chasing a creak in the front end that Im assuming is my strut or LCA bushings. Anyways today I decided to separate the upper ball joint and hose a little grease down the boot. When reassembling I noticed that the left side felt mushy when tightening and took way longer to torque to spec than the other side. When it eventually clicked the castle nut was significantly more bottomed out. There is no play and never has been any play in the UBJ, in fact i have had several mechanics look the front end over and at 100 000 miles everything seems bomber. Little worried about what is going on here though and wondering if anyone has any experience. When I inspected the UBJ it seemed super tight and in great and wasn't lacking grease. Is the balljoint pulling further into the UCA than it should?

Thanks so much
Steve

 

That does look odd. I mean, logic says that you're pulling the stud and whatever is attached to it (the ball?) up and out of the socket. I could be wrong but if after 100k miles on them I'd go in for a few bucks that the ball joints need to be replaced, if not seriously inspected after seeing that. They may be hanging on by a thread. I don't know, but that can't be right what I see in the photo.

 

For sure! I agree, it doesn't look right and didn't feel right torquing. But I did just get a comprehensive inspection of the truck by my local shop I trust and they said they couldn't find anything at all up front and seems rock solid. Before I pulled it apart today the castle nut was sitting equal on both sides. Even after this happened though there is no play or knocking noted from prying or test drive.

 

A buddy of mine speculated that it could be boring out the UCA hole that mates with the ball joint stud/taper. Seems like that would take a lot of force and Im super careful when torquing/disassembling/assembling

 

There wouldn't be much if any play in the joint if you were slowly deforming the cup the ball sits in. It would just fail suddenly. Like pulling a cork in a champagne bottle it would slide up the neck, then...POP. I mean that's what it looks like in my head.

 

Or this. This makes sense to me too. You will have to disassemble it and look at the bottom of the UCA for signs of what 88 describes. Good call Stevev88.

 

Will have a look. Obviously something is giving eh! Really appreciate the quick response. Greasing this balljoint didn't fix my creak I was hunting anyways so Ill be back under. I have a full lower control arm assembling with bushings pressed in and new Cams going in ASAP and a set of fox 2.0's

 

Shit, I wasn't paying attention. Steve, you were the OP. LOL I blame holiday stress... Give your friend some credit.

 

Haha no worries..the holiday stress/work plus hoping my wheels doesn't fall off is getting to me too lol! Appreciate your time

 

Keep us posted?

 

If you're pulling the BJ's to find a noise, just replace them. They aren't that expensive. Besides, it looks like they may still be originals anyway...

Do the lower BJs too.

And the tie rods.

As for a creek, I'd suspect your bushings...

 

have you done the ball joints yourself? If not I'm guessing the difference is because they are different brands and one was replaced but the other was not