[Tigers] Check Your Nuts

[Tom Hall]

It's hard to believe that this is still happening.  It started when Rick 
at Sunbeam Specialties changed suppliers way back in the mid-eighties.  
The OEM suppliers had always used castle nuts and cotter keys, but this 
new supplier went with the Nylock nut design. which Rick initially 
accepted.  My daughter had this "accident" happen in her Rotary powered 
Alpine, back in the 80's, a couple of blocks from home, exactly as you 
were, having the lower A-arm fall on the ground, and again luckily at 
low speed.

Rick arranged a meeting with reps for this supplier shortly after it 
happened.  Rick and I sat down with them and they insisted this this had 
never happened before and it must have been _My fault_. Rick and I 
talked at length and they told us that they were not going to modify 
their product. Rick however changed his receiveal methods so that the 
Nylok nut was tossed and a castle nut and drilled hole were installed in 
his lower ball joint stock from that time until the current time.  This 
supplier made an acceptable ball joint but they also deleted the copper 
plating of the genuine OEM supplier.  What happened is that during 
storage after manufacturing, moisture got into the joint and started the 
rust process.  With only the Nylock nut, it was only a matter of time 
before the friction in the joint started to turn the Nylock nut and 
unscrew it from the taper cone.

Conversely, the upper ball joints have also had this Nylock nut but I've 
never heard of anyone loosing one to this friction un-screw mechanism.  
Different loading's, different results.


>         On Sat, Mar 8, 2025 at 2:19 PM Joe Brown
>         <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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-- 
Tom Hall
ModTiger Engineering LLC
5712 San Luis Court
Pleasanton, CA 94566
(925)462-3876
modtiger at comcast.net
http://tigerengineering.net/ 
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