Knuckle pinch bolt: caution

[M3NTAL]

Ok so this has happen to me as well, driving along at 35mph and the ball joint popped out 2 weeks before madness. Needless to say after i corrected it i was still very sketched out on the road trip to Festiva madness!! :eeeeeek:

So i replaced the pinch bolt with the correct splined bolt, but heres the thing...on my other vehicle i just installed brand new LCAs and it came supplied ball joint bolt but it is not splined like the bolt that i had put in on the grey ghost last year. I dont know if i should be worried or not/ Although the LCAs on my Grey car are Aspire ones and the new one that has me worried now are festiva LCAs.

BTW this pic is of the the new car (festiva lca which has a lock nut on it but not pictured, and this was the supplied bolt that came with the lca)

[Movin]

The ones supplied meet specifications. There are no specifications requiring the splined shaft. It adds no strength but enables one to remove or install the nut one handed.

Look for 10.8 and the bolt shoulder just long enough to start threads after the gap that forms the junction of both sides of the pinch and the ball joint shaft, also look for black, non-plated bolt. That will meet specs and hold correctly, but original with splines for so cheap is a huge bonus!!

[zoom zoom]

My local hardware store is just amazing, I'm glad I found it, they have such a HUGE selection of nuts and bolts from stainless grade 8.8, hardened "mini head" metric and standard (my favorite) to BLACK CHROME!! YEA..black chrome! They're 3-4$ for a 10mm nut, but they're really pretty and nice to look at! Mostly Harley Davidson bolts....

I haven't had an LCA separate on me yet but I've ran plenty of vehicles with the WRONG pinch bolt...if you crank it down tight enough it won't be comming loose because it pinches the stud. I just replaced my lca today and stuck the "wrong" bolt back in, but it's just temporary until I get to the hardware store. The only thing you really have to look for when buying the "right bolt" is the shoulder and length but most shoulder bolts are a universal length shoulder and threads on the end, has to be the right size diameter to lock the lca stud in place. I bought a couple for other vehicles before but anymore I don't really care. The ones I bought to use as pinch bolts were actually a standard thread pitch and they were slightly too long but it's nothing a couple washers as spacers couldn't fix.

Another thing I noticed today while I had it apart was that there's every bit of about 5 thousandths or more slop on the inner lca bolt shoulder and the lca bushing...I circumvented buying a new bolt and punching out the captive nut by using a THIN walled brass pipe and cutting a small sliver to shim it, it took a couple tries to get the right width to fill the gap to my liking but it's nice and snug now.. I really don't know how many times I've pulled a knuckle or axle but this Ohio rust gets me every time and I don't think it's ever gonna be easy for me...tempted to put a receiver on Fiona and flat tow kiazord down to Florida and leave this rust behind me...along with other headaches! haha..

[Movin]

"Hey buddy can you bring that key over here?" "Yeah, the black chrome and brushed stainless."
"BAG"...Heck no i'm taking the boxes!!

Yeah I here you, that stuff looks awesome! And spec or better, in your country if it does not rust that is huge!!

Out here , on that last new car several years ago before it was stored out doors it suffered a scratch or two to bare metal. I took pics, the metal is still silver with absolutely NO rust!!

[M3NTAL]

Ok good to know thanks guys it says 10.8 and its black and looks hardened...... I can sleep tonight

[nitrofarm]

Ok so this has happen to me as well, driving along at 35mph and the ball joint popped out 2 weeks before madness. Needless to say after i corrected it i was still very sketched out on the road trip to Festiva madness!! :eeeeeek:

So i replaced the pinch bolt with the correct splined bolt, but heres the thing...on my other vehicle i just installed brand new LCAs and it came supplied ball joint bolt but it is not splined like the bolt that i had put in on the grey ghost last year. I dont know if i should be worried or not/ Although the LCAs on my Grey car are Aspire ones and the new one that has me worried now are festiva LCAs.

BTW this pic is of the the new car (festiva lca which has a lock nut on it but not pictured, and this was the supplied bolt that came with the lca)

Mental it kinda looks like the bolt you have is to short though? Or is just the pic? Should be able to count 3 threads after the nut.

[nitrofarm]

Forgot to ask you is that a Nylon lock nut?

[standard235]

I've just started having a clunk when going over bumps and the car pulling to left under power and to the right when I let off. Guess it's time to check that nut. I've just been zipping it on with the impact. Oops.

And the LCA's are only a month or two old (Moog RK477 I believe is the number) when I did my Rio swap.