big boo-boo'd..., blunder repair job - advice reqd...?

[andycook]

Was changing 4th of suspension ball-joints last night,
the lower o/s one. I managed to shear-off one of the lower ball joint-to-steering knuckle bolts....
I tried and failed to remove it with drill and stud-extractor, so ended up drilling the whole think out and drilling out exisiting threads in the knuckle.
For the moment I have put an high-tensile bolt trhough the whole thing with locking washer and nut ,

should this be OK as a permant fix?
as the bolt isnt torque'd that high ~58 n/m,
or would I be better taking the truck to a garage to get the knuckle re-threaded (tapp'd) and an oversized bolt put in place?
might be difficult to get a new thread tapped in, as the steering knuckle metal is pretty tough stuff as my drill bit's discovered...

any tips?...

andy

[Guest]

Was changing 4th of suspension ball-joints last night,
the lower o/s one. I managed to shear-off one of the lower ball joint-to-steering knuckle bolts....
I tried and failed to remove it with drill and stud-extractor, so ended up drilling the whole think out and drilling out exisiting threads in the knuckle.
For the moment I have put an high-tensile bolt trhough the whole thing with locking washer and nut ,

should this be OK as a permant fix?
as the bolt isnt torque'd that high ~58 n/m,
or would I be better taking the truck to a garage to get the knuckle re-threaded (tapp'd) and an oversized bolt put in place?
might be difficult to get a new thread tapped in, as the steering knuckle metal is pretty tough stuff as my drill bit's discovered...

any tips?...

andy

Leave it as is. A common thing for a few cars I have seen with balljoint replacements is to replace with bolts. As long as the bolt is the right size for the hole and has no sideways movement you should be OK. Also make sure there is a locking washer and some threadlock on it.

Cheers

[andycook]

Cheers Lucky...

The bolt I put in was slighty too slim,
I picked up a correct sized bolt (snug fit) and locking washer at lunchtime today, so will fit that this evening- with some threadlock as you suggested

andy