castle nut/cotter pin HELP!

[shane10]

Hello all, I just replaced the front LCA on one side of my 2002 explorer, it was a real PITA but I finally got it done. However I (possibly) ran into a problem when I went to lock the cotter pin onto the castle nut for the lower ball joint (bottom of knuckle).
The hole for the cotter pin is well below the bottom of the castle nut, when I put the cotter pin through, there is no contact with the castle nut. I have read you should never back the castle nut off, is this true in my case? Is it safe to drive like this?
I am unsure if I over-torqued the bolt on the bottom ball joint, or if the ball joint spindle is too long, any help is appreciated
Thanks
EDIT: The only real solution I can think of is to put a washer/spacer in the close the gap, but this seems like a bad idea to me
EDIT #2: I noticed the old castle nut is slightly longer, is it safe to re-use this? I believe it would solve my issue

 

[Number4]

You should be fine as it is. That’s how mine was too. I don’t believe the nut should come off if properly torqued. If it was loose and only the cotter pin was keeping it from fully backing off, you’d have issues anyway.

 

[shane10]

You should be fine as it is. That’s how mine was too. I don’t believe the nut should come off if properly torqued. If it was loose and only the cotter pin was keeping it from fully backing off, you’d have issues anyway.

Thanks for the reply, I drove it around a bit, everything seems tight and the corners feel much better. I finally got around to doing them because the creaking got so bad, low and behold it's just as bad as before. Must be the uppers that are so noisy, even though they were replaced about 3 years ago

 

[XploX]

Grease the bushings.

 

[MrPulldown]

You should be fine. The pin will prevent the nut from backing off completely. You will notice it when driving that the nut is lose.