Warning!!!

[ant]

On Sunday morning I was driving down to a local beauty spot with the wife, kids and dog in our 1996 3.0 td Surf when there was a sudden clunk and a jolt. I stopped the car and got out thinking maybe I'd hit a pot hole and got a puncture. What I found was that the nearside front wheel had actually detached itself from the axle! Turns out the split pin that holds the castelated nut on the lower ball joint rod must have come off and the nut had worked itself loose and dropped off. Thank god that-
A). We were only doing about 5mph.
B). I'm in the AA.
C). The axle wasn't damaged so I only had to buy a new lower ball joint (thanks Milner Off Road) and the labour to get it fitted.

I've just checked the other front wheel and the head of the split pin is broken off so that will be replaced ASAP.
Either I've really upset somebody or it's just wear and tear. Either way, I would suggest you have a quick look behind your wheels to check the state of your split pins and nuts!

Ant.

[Sancho]

Are you saying that the wheel is held on by a split pin?

[ant]

The split pin goes through the lower ball joint rod to stop the nut from working loose. So in effect the nut and split pin are securing the wheel
Ant.

[Apache]

And a stud which wont come out without a good mullering with a balljoint splitter (in my case)

I bet someone's had them off sometime and re-used the same split pins again. NEVER re-use split pins folks!

In summary, if the split pin is in, the nut is secure, so wheelie cant come off.