Zootal Posted April 21, 2014 Share Posted April 21, 2014 Some of you may know this already, but this is new to me, and it bit me. So I'm replacing axles on my 1994 Legacy. While I'm at it I notice one of the ball joint boots was ripped. Since ball joints are easy to replace on these cars, I figured I'd replace them both. Off to O'Reilly's I go for a set of ball joints. When I went to install them, I noticed the old ones have a castle nut and cotter key, while the new ones did not. All they had was a "self locking" nut. Fine, whatever, whoever makes these knows more than Subaru does, right? So I install them, torque them to specs, done with job. A month later my wife complains that the front end clunks when she hits a bump. I check it and find the nut on the ball joint has come loose and is half off. I then went and found a set of ball joints with castle nuts, and threw these non-castle nut ball joints in the trash where they belong. Moral of the story: If you replace ball joints, DO NOT use a set that does not have castle nuts and a cotter key! They can come loose. Whoever made them figured they could cut manufacturing costs by using a self locking nut instead of drilling the shaft and using a castle nut. It is a bad design, and y'all know what happens when a ball joint jumps out of the control arm while you are cruising down the road? It's not pretty. Lucky for us I caught it before that happened. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnegg Posted April 21, 2014 Share Posted April 21, 2014 i have never seen ''self-locking'' nuts on ball joints, but all my experience is limited to 95 - 04 suabru ball joints. and i have only replaced one. but just a guess, the self locking aspect may change the torque spec.???? you also have to wathc out for some ball joints made in china.?? they do not fit as well and make the job much harder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mwiener2 Posted April 21, 2014 Share Posted April 21, 2014 Is your "self locking" nut really a nut with a shoulder that is meant to be deformed into a recess to prevent it from turning, maybe? My Mods List (Updated 8/22/17) 2005 Outback FMT Running on Electrons Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zootal Posted April 21, 2014 Author Share Posted April 21, 2014 Is your "self locking" nut really a nut with a shoulder that is meant to be deformed into a recess to prevent it from turning, maybe? In this case "self locking" means a vinyl/plastic insert on one end of the nut to prevent it from coming loose. Not sure if there is a more correct technical description. Alas, it didn't work, and the nut came loose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zootal Posted April 21, 2014 Author Share Posted April 21, 2014 i have never seen ''self-locking'' nuts on ball joints, but all my experience is limited to 95 - 04 suabru ball joints. and i have only replaced one. but just a guess, the self locking aspect may change the torque spec.???? you also have to wathc out for some ball joints made in china.?? they do not fit as well and make the job much harder. The ball joint came with an insert that specified torque spec, which I went by. I vote for made in China. I wish I had a dollar for every time I've been bit by a piece of made in china junk. The toaster that doesn't last six months, the mp3 player that breaks after a few weeks, the rice cooker that burns out quickly, the hose that splits before summer is out, the list goes on and on. Our landfills are filling up with made in China junk and I'm ashamed to say I've contributed my share.... I did ball joints on a 96 plymouth van a year or so ago, and those were torqued to 65 foot pounds. And they have never come loose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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