Upper ball joint pinch bolt

[Sentry]

Ok.. who ever thought changing a ball joint could be so much fun.. the pinch bolt head stripped out on me when i tried to remove it, so off to drilling i went... i drilled it and tapped it, but unforunatly doesnt seem like i drilled it perfect, as the new threads dont seem perfect, i put a new bolt in, cranked it down and seems to hold fine.. what im wondering is, to be safe would it hurt to put a longer bolt in and put a lock nut on the other end? seems like everything clears it with plenty of room to spare.. only reason i ask is it seems like when it was designed someone went threw alot of trouble to resess the bolt head into the upper part of the steering knuckle


1992 ford explorer xlt, dana 35
Thanks
Chris

 

[Hartman]

On second gens, the pinch bolt doesn't thread into the spindle, it just slides thru and you put the nut on the other end. That seems to work fine for a second gen, so I don't see why it wouldn't work on a first gen.

 

[mrboyle]

I've had to do the same thing on a '93 for a customer. Seems to work fine (haven't seen it back in over a year).