[Tigers] Check Your Nuts

[Joe Brown]

Hi Tom,

Thanks for the explanation.  I was worried that maybe I had done something
wrong when I installed them. I've got an order in for some new ones along
with some tie rod ends and I look forward to getting back on the road.

Thanks,
Joe Brown

On Sun, Mar 9, 2025, 9:47 PM Tom Hall via Tigers <tigers at autox.team.net>
wrote:

> 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 LLC5712 San Luis Court
> Pleasanton, CA 94566 <https://www.google.com/maps/search/5712+San+Luis+Court%0D%0APleasanton,+CA+94566?entry=gmail&source=g>
> (925)462-3876modtiger at comcast.nethttp://tigerengineering.net/
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