Whilst replacing my axles, I used a small pitman puller to separate the LBJ on my 95 GSR. One side worked out fine, but on the other side, I crushed the bottom of the LBJ stud rendering it unusable. I realize now that I should have left a nut on the stud to prevent this, but hindsight is 20/20 and yaddayaddayadda... For a few different reasons, I decided to try to "fix" the stud rather than replacing the LBJ. Here is what I did...

I got out my dremel and ground down the disfigured portion of the stud. I used this method to take off the bottom threads that had warped and to make the bottom of the stud (which had mushroomed out) small enough to get the castle nut back on. I also had to drill out the cotter pin channel a little so that a new pin would fit. Here is what the end result looked like...



The castle nut torqued down fine and the new pin fit nicely. I've since driven around and done some stress testing and so far I'm satisfied.

So, basically... do I have a deathwish? Or is this a reasonably clever fix?

Opinions anyone?

 

as long as the threads span the entire castle nut, and the cotter pin sits in right, you should be just fine.

 

Just replace it. The balljoints are like $25 and you can just hammer it out and hammer the new one in when the knuckle is still on the car.

 

Thanks for the responses.

There are no threads left to come into contact with the top or slotted portion of the castle nut (which is also threaded), but it would seem to me that inherent in the design of the nut that the "grip" lost there would be minimal.

If I could get it high enough in the air, I'd go the BFH route, but I don't have enough clearance under the car to really wail on it.

Ran it 100 miles yesterday. Alignment actually seems slightly better than before the axle swap, but I think I may need to balance the tires. I wonder if cleaning all that CVJ grease off the wheels will fix that...

 

yup I am a dumbass too and did the same thing to my tie rod end. Ended up fixing it the same way. yeah as long as the threaed section of the nut (excluding the where its sloted) is on threads you'll be fine.

 

dp

 

I left the nut on but smacked it so hard the very end bent. I ground it off and installed the castle nut with red loctite as there was not enough room for a cotter pin hole. Yeah it is a bubba fix but I am a cheap SOB.
Brian

 

You better hope it doesn't pop out. If it does, you are totally fucked.

I had it happen right outside my house and it popped the CV joint out of place and totally screwed up my wheel well when the tire went almost sideways.

 

i hope it's that easy. i have two new LBJs to install.

 

It is. I mushroomed the ball joint stud when I put in my new axles and was in a bind, so I picked up a new balljoint, took my BFH and hammered the old one out and the new one in. Didn't take more than 5 minutes of hard banging. h: