Angel84-928

So I'm coming from a friend's house and stop for Gas. After filling up I pull out of the Gas station and make an nice wide left turn. I notice that the steering wheel is almost 90 degrees off center, WTF? Confused, I turn the wheel to the right and back to the left and then BOOM, screeeeech. Luckily I'm only doing like 10 mph so I pull to a left turn lane and stop. This is what I see:



The Lower Ball Joint Nut backed out releasing the joint. Doesn't seem to be any additional collateral damage so I'm counting my blessings. I normally drive the car like I stole it but this time I was just taking my time. Again, luckily.

I called my insurance, Hagerty's, and they dispatched a Tow Truck. I t arrived about 2 hrs later but the guy was a PRO and super nice guy. When he first looked at it he jokingly said the he's was gonna "F@ck my Sh*7 up" but was "gonna do some magic" for me. He took his time and used a 2x10 to assist in sliding the car onto the bed without creating any additional damage.

Once at home we used a small hydraulic floor jack to lift the car, while still on the bed, and used a tie strap to temporarily secure the assembly together. As promised, did some magic for me and he got the car off without a hitch.

Now comes the post accident inspection. Wish me luck.

Mrmerlin

Maybe you get away with only installing a new nut
I would consider replacing both lower Ball joints, as damage could have been done to the one that separated and if the other side is original well why not do both .
You should have the car aligned after wards

Fabio421

I hope I wasn't too flippant last night when you called. I was right in the middle of a celebration and already had 6 martinis and a capirinha in me by the time you started calling. Don't sweat it man, it can be fixed. And like I said, theres a perfect fender on the lemons car. It only needs the holes drilled for the spoiler. I'm sure mike can work out a great deal for you if you turn over your old one as a core.

SharkSkin

WOW, that sucks. Hopefully the damage was minimal. Those nuts are supposed to be single-use. Either they were re-used many times, the wrong nut was used, or it was never torqued down.

Angel84-928

Both lower Ball Joints were new. I'll probably R&R the passenger's side and get an alignment.

You weren't flippant at all. You and Tarek made me feel better. I was just in a bad place mentally last night. The fender looks good.

It was the correct nut. I know I torqued it down. I didn't know they were one-time-use nuts. I did reuse them when I replaced the ball joints. I can't seem to find them on our Sponsor's sites.

I am missing pg. 40-26 out of WSM.

James Bailey

Some of the importers do not provide new nuts with the ball joints....

DR

99908405902

Angel84-928

I had the PN but couldn't find NEW on the websites.

edit:
I guess if I entered the PN correctly I could find it. $8.27 new at 928 spec

DR

For a quick temporary fix so you can move it around, go to Lowes or a nut bolt place and get a M12 x1.5 Locknut

Bill Ball

The replacement balljoints (at least when purchased on a tie rod) from our 928 vendors have had a castellated nut and were drilled for a cotter pin.

[EDIT: Aw, Jeez!!! I see now it was the lower control arm and not the steering knuckle balljoint that came loose. Heck, the thread is even titled lower ball joint! Anyway, that balljoint comes with a single-use nut and is not pinned. Sorry about the confusion.]

hacker-pschorr

+1

Every bolt like this should have a cotter pin.

Mike Frye

That's what surprised me. I remember Angel saying he was doing the steering rack last year sometime and I thought those nuts had cotter pins on them. Are we all talking about the same ones?

SharkSkin

Interesting. Mine must be original, or from another source. The balljoints are not drilled, and use a toplock nut like this(same nut works on the rack and the tie rod end, but I don't have a clear pic of the latter)

Fabio421

During our conversation last night, Tarek mentioned that he had this same failure in the past. He also mentioned that there wasn't a cotter pin on his. maybe it varies depending on the vendor. I have some lower ball joints in the garage that are made in Germany. The brand of the bag is Lamforden Metallwaren but t he box says distributed by Brant Ainley. These do not have a hole for a cotter pin or a new nut.

Bill Ball

My original balljoints had solid locknuts and no cotter pin holes, but all the replacement tierod/balljoint combinations I have purchased from 2 different 928vendors had the castellated nuts and cotter pin holes. Regardless, I never had a problem with my stock balljoints coming loose, but I don't believe they had ever been loosened until I replaced them a few years ago. If you don't have cotter pins, checking the balljoint nuts would be something to add to the checklist when doing the annual oil change.

[EDIT - WRONG BALLJOINT. SORRY!]