Rep Power: 314

Just did my ball joints and I used Napa ball joints which are OE fit but not OEM manufactured obviously. The drivers side went in just fine, the passanger side didnt. I may have overtorqued the castle nut slightly but the nut sits higher up than the cotter pin, in other words the cotter pin is pretty well useless sitting below the nut. I'm not really concerned about it, if the nut decides to back off its going to hit the cotter pin all the same. I overtorqued the nut about 10 ft/lbs more than it called for but it did seem to be turning for a long time. Just posting this up in case someone has done it before and its actually dangerous. Car drives great Oh I forgot to add the actual install of the ball joint went fine, just the castle nut sitting too high is the issue.

 
Rep Power: 0

I installed moog ball joints and the same thing happened. I didn't over torque them, it just seemed like the hole for the cotter pin was higher than on the OEM ball joints. No problem so far and I have over 1000 miles on them.

I'm going to keep checking them every time i change the oil.

 
Rep Power: 314

Yea that's my plan too.. just to keep checking them i assume they are just slightly off spec or something.. I did a nice highway drive and they didnt move... the other option given to me was to put a washer on so the hole lines up properly. A mechanic told me that was totally safe.

 
Rep Power: 367

i found some castle nuts in a hardware store that were taller in this case, but took visiting 3 or 4 to find them...

 
Rep Power: 314

I think I'm going to redo the ball joint... ive put 200kms on it already and it hasnt moved but its bothering me a lot... it has a lifetime warranty so if I explain to the guy that the nut isnt sitting properly on the joint he should refund it no problem... I'm going to call and confirm. It should only take me an hour maxium to replace it and it's going to be free so I'm just gonna bite the bullet and do it right. That way I'm not constantly thinking about it.