I was driving down the highway today and hit a bump in the road. All of the sudden it felt like my car wanted to jerk all over the road. I pulled over, checked my car to find smoke rollin from my passenger fender well. My control arm (i think thats what its called, the triangle shaped arm with the ball joint that holds the wheel in straight) popped out of the socket. This also found a way to blow out my tire, I guess from rubbing on something while wobbling around. So i popped it back in, put on the spare, and drove 10mph to a parking lot a block away and had my friend trailer it.

Has anyone had a problem like this before? It doesnt seem like something you hear about everyday...Also i was wondering, if there is suppose to be a pin under the joint...like to keep it from popping out? I didnt see any hole where a pin should go, but maybe I just missed it. I do know that this was definately a crappy day and now I have to go out and buy some tires. Just thought I would share that.

 

Sounds like you lost the nut that screws onto the ball-joint bolt??

 

Is there a nut on the bottom of the ball joint? That very well could be, since there is no nut on there right now.

 

This happened to my friend Ray lee. Fortunately he was in a parking garage. I'll get the details the next time I speak to him. Glad you're ok.

 

Is there a nut that goes on the lower end of the joint? I tried feeling, and i didnt feel any threads. I tightened the bolt around it real tight, and it feels like its in there good, but I dont wanna take a chance at the same thing happening again.

 

Check the hub where the ball-joint stud inserts. There should be an opening for a bolt to go through. The bolt in question is inserted perpendicular to the Ball Joint Stud (runs across through the hub) and then it's secured with a nut??

 

it almost happened to me, fortunatly i bought a set of drift rims and changed out my tires and caught quite a few of my bolts backing their way out...

 

The bolt that runs perpendicular to the ball joint stud, it was tight, but not TIGHT. i could easily pop the stud in and out of the hole. so i popped it back in, and tightened the crap out of that bolt. Has anyone considered drilling a small hole through the bottom of the stud, and putting a pin in there to keep it in place as a back up?

 

From some of the diagrams I've seen, THERE IS a hole in the Ball Joint Stud for a pin. Did your stud break off?? You may have lost the bottom part of the B/J Stud??

 

Here's a diagram of the part...

 

Sorry, having trouble downloading diagram. But the diagram clearly indicates a pin that attaches to the B/J stud somehow after the stud is inserted through the hub.

PM me with your e-mail address and I'll shoot you the diagram.

 

.zip isnt workin for me...could you email that to me? racerfoo@hotmail.com

thanks

 

Just e-mailed you the diagram. You may need to download the photo as a jpeg so you can zoom into it. Let me know if it worked. Thanks.

 

On Hondas they use a cotter pin inserted through a "castle nut" that is threaded onto the ball joint threads. I haven't looked at mine on the FD, but there should most definitely be a cotter pin installed and bent over itself.

 

There is... on the ball joint shaft for the lower control arm. The upper control arm's ball joint shaft has a 360-degree "indent" in it which mates with a bolt that threads into the steering knuckle laterally. When tight, there should be no way that bolt can back out, or that the shaft can pull past the bolt, unless the bolt wasn't tightened properly or the shaft is excessively worn.

 

Could you resend the email? I didnt get it. So is there the indention, AND a cotter pin?

 

No, just an indentation in the shaft. There is no cotter pin on the upper control arm ball joint. The bolt has a non-threaded section (if I recall correctly) that locks the shaft in the steering knuckle because it passes through that indentation.

The picture below shows the ball joint shaft of the upper control arm and the 360-degree indentation.

 

i went to have my car alligned, and they told me my bolt was stripped and thats why my alignment changed, they said if that bold sheared or came out that would happen, Took it to mazda 24 dollars for both sides and 70 dollars labor. not to bad to keep my wheels on and going straight

 

Ok, thanks Jimlab. I knew you would post a picture up of your polished crap, haha. I have that indention, I guess the bolt just wasnt tight enough. Its on there now, just need a new tire.

Would it be a bad idea to drill a small hole and put a pin in there, just for a backup? Or could that weaken the **** and maybe cause it to break off?

 

Jim,
that doesnt look like the standard unobtanium bushing in the A-Arm? what give?
1R1

 

Where would you put a pin?

When the shaft is inserted into the steering knuckle, it does not extend to the point that you could put a cotter pin through it, and a cotter pin wouldn't help anyway. Cotter pins are intended for non-load bearing retention of a pin or shaft. In the case of the lower ball joint, the cotter pin is solely intended to keep the castle nut from loosening. A cotter pin alone would be sheared off immediately and would not retain the ball joint shaft.

That said, the best solution is a new bolt, and a dab of medium grade (blue) Loctite to make sure it stays where you put it.

 

Those would be non-standard, custom pillow bushings...

 

Custom Pillow Bushings for the front Upper A-Arms! Wow that's cool. What would be the difference...? Just wondering. And how much...Im about to switch mine out this weekend...

 

Custom pillow bushings for all the previously non-pillow bushing locations, actually...



The difference would be that the stock rubber bushings have an excessive amount of slop that the Nylon bushings eliminate most of. However the Nylon still has some (very small) amount of "give" to it under load. Pillow bushings are metal on metal construction, so there is no slop whatsoever unless they are worn out.

Basically, it's the equivalent of having an entire "rod end" (Heim joints like those used in the M2 toe links and trailing arms, etc.) suspension, with the joint completely protected from road debris. This makes the suspension as accurate and linear as possible at the expense of increased road noise.

They're one-offs. I doubt there will be any more produced, and they were very expensive.

 

For someone that wanted to replace all the bushings in there weekend car to give the car a "new" felling all over, Who/what company should we see. I want stiff handling but not as extreme as the replacement pillow bushings (jimlab). should we replace all with factory new ones or go aftermarket nylon?? What is better for price and ride quality??