Castle nut on upper ball joint

[brandster]

I bought a cheap-o upper ball joint (for 72 C10 suspension K6124 ball joint) and the castle nut has way to much solid part before you get to the gaps in the nut, so could not get the cotter pin in before nut was to far in. Does anyone happen to have a picture of the castle nut that comes with a better brand (Moog K6124 upper)? Thanks.

[Chevy nutcase]

Originally Posted by brandster

I bought a cheap-o upper ball joint (for 72 C10 suspension K6124 ball joint) and the castle nut has way to much solid part before you get to the gaps in the nut, so could not get the cotter pin in before nut was to far in. Does anyone happen to have a picture of the castle nut that comes with a better brand (Moog K6124 upper)? Thanks.

Is the new ball joint fully seated? Most ball joints I've used, if not all have had threads extending well past the end of the nut much like the lower ball joint I see I'm the pic

[brandster]

Originally Posted by Chevy nutcase

Is the new ball joint fully seated? Most ball joints I've used, if not all have had threads extending well past the end of the nut much like the lower ball joint I see I'm the pic

Yes, it is fully seated. It just seems like the castle nut is taller (at least by an 8th of an inch) than other upper ball joint castle nuts, but I don't have my original ball joints/castle nuts to compare too, so I was curious to see the size of other upper ball joint castle nuts.

[Sheepdip]

https://www.mcmaster.com/products/ca.../nut-type~hex/

[Ironangel]

This is the Moog-K6124 It appears to have a thinner nut but you really cant rely on these pics. I have ran into this problem before and simply ran a drill bit through the semi-open hole once tightened. Orient the hole where you can ream it and install the cotter pin. It should be fine...

[Accelo]

Grind or file some metal off the bottom of the nut. (May to too hard for a file) Then run a tap through the nut. If you don't have a tap start the nut upside down and the ball joint stud should repair the thread start enough to get it started.

[brandster]

Ok, thanks for the info guys. It is hard to tell by illustration pictures (if its the actual model number show) in product pictures, so thats why I was curious if anyone had an actual picture of their upper ball joint castle nut on a 72 C10. I went ahead and ordered moog upper ball joints like I should have to begin with, hopefully that fixes the issue. The cheap route isn't always the cheap route!

[Rust_never_sleeps]

Agree that ball joint don't look right, I fear you're solving the wrong problem here.
What did you mean by: "could not get the cotter pin in before nut was to far in"

Cheapy generics I got with CPP kit and I could put another nut on the open threads

[brandster]

Originally Posted by Rust_never_sleeps

Agree that ball joint don't look right, I fear you're solving the wrong problem here.
What did you mean by: "could not get the cotter pin in before nut was to far in"

Cheapy generics I got with CPP kit and I could put another nut on the open threads

My Castle nut is twice as tall as the castle nut you have on your upper ball joint. Thats the problem im referring to. Other upper ball joint castle nuts seem to be shorter.

[Rust_never_sleeps]

and all other ball joints come with longer studs too?

[Accelo]

I have ran into this issue before. Sometimes the cotter sits on top the nut and sometimes it seems not to go on far enough. When it's to low I add washers. Too high and I grind the nut. In the old days they had standards. Now it's anything goes as long is it costs less. Of course it's possible you have a taper that doesn't match the spindle. It has to come apart to inspect for that scenario.

[TheRocket]

You could do what my old mechanic did and weld that castle nut on there. Speaking to other mechanics, this guy is famous for welding all kinds of crap that shouldn't be welded.

[Steeveedee]

Originally Posted by TheRocket

You could do what my old mechanic did and weld that castle nut on there. Speaking to other mechanics, this guy is famous for welding all kinds of crap that shouldn't be welded.

I guess he didn't care if it came back for repeat business? Just making extra work for someone else. My ex- brother-in-law did stuff like that.

[Getter-Done]

Originally Posted by Steeveedee

I guess he didn't care if it came back for repeat business? Just making extra work for someone else. My ex- brother-in-law did stuff like that.

Yes This

I work with a bunch of Hammer and Chisel (So Called Mechanics)

[Rust_never_sleeps]

Originally Posted by TheRocket

You could do what my old mechanic did and weld that castle nut on there. Speaking to other mechanics, this guy is famous for welding all kinds of crap that shouldn't be welded.

Rivian uses threadlocker, and they only work loose some of the time ;-)

[hewittca]

For your reference, here is a picture of my ball joints installed. I used the Mevotech 6124 ball joint from Rock Auto. I do recall having a hard time getting the cotter pin in, but it did eventually go through without any modification. My thought at the time was that the drop spindle I had was thicker than the stock spindle, but I never actually measured it. It does appear that the stud is shorter on these than on some of the other photos posted here.

[jnewt]

Here s a pic of a Moog K6124 on my bench along with a pic of the upper current on my 72. The nut your new Moog K6124 will come with should be thinner than that nut you were working with originally.

Not sure why the pics will not display. They do on my phone. Im new lol. You should be set when you get the Moog though.

[brandster]

Thanks for all of the pictures. I did order and install the Moog K6124, worked out great with no issues.