[Tigers] Check Your Nuts

Sun Mar 9 12:27:08 MDT 2025

Jerry

That is an excellent idea.   A witness mark will give a fast visual if a nut or bolt has moved.

Ron Fraser

From: Jerry Christopherson <christopherson2023 at gmail.com> 
Sent: Sunday, March 09, 2025 11:40 AM
To: Ron Fraser <rfraser at bluefrog.com>
Subject: Re: [Tigers] Check Your Nuts

Something that works very well is a "witness mark" on bolts or nuts. A small white line (finger nail polish) on the side of a nut down to the base metal. Very easy to take a quick look to see if any movement has occured. Jerry   

On Sun, Mar 9, 2025 at 10:21 AM Ron Fraser <rfraser at bluefrog.com <mailto:rfraser at bluefrog.com> > wrote:

Joe

Glad no one was hurt by this incident.

Seems strange that a NyLock nut came loose but without that nut the full weight of the car and the spring force are pushing the ball joint out of the knuckle.

Do a complete inspection of the knuckle – safety first and always.

Maintenance schedule – less driven vehicles really need increased maintenance schedules.

When the weather warms up more here I will do a safety check for all the lights and complete front end check with brakes checked – this is my normal maintenance routine before driving the Tiger every year.

Last summer I did an even more comprehensive check on the Tiger and found numerous little problems – torn ball joint boots, air in the brake lines, rear brakes needed adjustment, Panhard bolt very loose – good thing it was a long bolt or it would be lost to the highway gremlins forever plus a small fuel leak.

These days with the fuel; everyone should routinely inspect the condition of any fuel hose – if cracked, replace.

 Ron Fraser

From: Tigers <tigers-bounces at autox.team.net <mailto:tigers-bounces at autox.team.net> > On Behalf Of Joe Brown
Sent: Saturday, March 08, 2025 11:09 PM
To: Jay Laifman <jay.laifman at gmail.com <mailto:jay.laifman at gmail.com> >
Cc: tigers at autox.team.net <mailto:tigers at autox.team.net> 
Subject: Re: [Tigers] Check Your Nuts

I was also wondering about how it came loose.  We have a bunch of rough roads around here and I have to cross over several cattle guards. I wonder if the nut came loose and then hitting pot holes and cattle guards knocked the pin loose. I hope and pray that the hole in the knuckle hasn't been worn out a little bit. I'll have to see how the new ball joints fit.  I'll keep everybody posted.

Thanks,

Joe Brown 

On Sat, Mar 8, 2025, 9:45 PM Jay Laifman <jay.laifman at gmail.com <mailto:jay.laifman at gmail.com> > wrote:

Wow.  That is really scary. Thanks for the warning.  

I see what you are saying about the castle nuts.  However, I have to say, in all the years I've taken off ball joints or tie rods, I've never ever had one just slide off, and they always needed a tool and a lot of force.  So I'm wondering if something else happened there.  

On Sat, Mar 8, 2025 at 2:19 PM Joe Brown <jbbrown1980 at gmail.com <mailto:jbbrown1980 at gmail.com> > wrote:

So,  I took my Tiger out yesterday for a short drive and as I was just about home (maybe a hundred yards from my driveway) the right front suspension dropped to the ground and I skidded several yards before stopping.  All I could think of was the old stories about exploding ball joints. 

I walked to my house and threw a floor jack and some jack stands in my truck and drove back to the Tiger.  I managed to get the front end jacked up and discovered that the nut on the lower ball joint was gone and the lower A arm had dropped to the road.  My suspension pieces are at least 30 years old and the ball joints were held on with nylock nuts. I managed to wrap a ratchet strap around the upper and lower A arms and I was able to slowly drive the car into my garage. 

I am very lucky that: 

1. I was going pretty slow at the time

2. The front end landed in some loose gravel on the side of the road

3. None of the body work was damaged

4.  And nothing else in the suspension looks to be damaged; just scraped up

If this had happened 5 minutes earlier I would have been doing 60 on a winding road and I would have wound up in a ditch.

So I'm ordering a new set of ball joints and I will drill them out for castle nuts so I don't have to worry about a nut working its way loose again.  

Regards,

Joe Brown

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