Hey again guys, I'm trying to find the nut that goes on the tie rod connecting it to the steering knuckle/pitman arm on the control arm. It's a locking castle type nut, and I can't find one anywhere. Mine broke while I was trying to get it off while replacing my control arm, and I'm not sure if I can use a regular nut or not. After I get this nut and a radiator my car will be ready to go. I just don't want to get the radiator in and be unable to drive because of a stupid nut.

If anyone knows how I would go about finding one of these nuts, that would be cool. Thanks for any help anyone can provide.

 

most local auto parts should have one around. i wouldnt try and use a regular nut for saftey reasons

 

yeah, dont use a regular nut, bad mojo right there. as kapn said. Most shops should carry it. just take the remains to them so they can get the size and thread pitch. shouldnt cost more then 10 bucks. hell not even 5 bucks. how did you break the nut though if you dont mind me asking

 

BTW, if you got a belle tire near by and you wanna know a good supply store, talk to one of there mechanics. I lived and will ive agian in MI and I worked for belle tire, they dont use autozone or some other big chain with crap parts, they go through a few good local vendors. And as long as you bring them some tire business then the sales people at least should be more then happy to let you know.

 

It's a locking castle type nut because they figured a normal nut would fall off after it rattled around. If you know the thread, you could order one pretty easily too:

http://www.fastenal.com/web/products...99602449&Nty=0

 

dremel notches into a regular nut to fit a cotter pin?
its probably less work to go out and buy one for $.50 though :P

 

Thanks for the tips guys. I'll try going to a few different places tomorrow. I went to some hardware stores around here and they didn't have any castle nuts. I'll try Autozone tomorrow.

As to how it was broke, it didn't really break as much as it was stripped. Someone had obviously tried taking it off in the past, and did a very bad job of it. Then I came along and made it even worse. Anyway, I put it on my workbench and then my brother went out there to mess with his car while I was at work and when I got back the nut was gone. So now I can't even find out the thread size.

Actually after I made this post I took a look at my old control arm/steering knuckle, and there is a similar nut connecting them together, I'm going to try to get it off tomorrow and hopefully it's the same size as on my tie rod.

 

Can you drop a thread gauge on the rod?