Hi all,

This is probably a very sill question (please forgive my stupidity), but......

How tight should the nuts be on the tapered bit of the ball joints my cortina uprights fix to?

I presume they should be quite tight, so the ball joint rotates with the upright when steering - ie the upright doesn't just turn on this tapered bit.

Rob

i just give it a full and pair of good swings with my "ratle??"

don't forget that some parts move when trying to fix, you should then presit with a good force in wards... (soow the nut comes lose..)


TKS

On a ford sierra the book says 65 to 85 Nm (48 to 63 foot pounds) for lower ball joint.

Escort mk 2 is about 50 Nm (30 to 35 foot pounds)

[Edited on 4/3/05 by clbarclay]

For the ball joints it roughly translates to a damm good pull on a standard length socket ratchet.

For the trackrod ends just an ordinary good pull will do.

A good thing to do when putting something onto a taper is to use a plane nut to pull it onto the taper then take off the plain nut and refit with nyloc etc.

I think you mean ratchet TKS. Just be careful not to overdo it as it's possible to get over 100lb/ft with a ratchet handle. I had a bottom balljoint strip on me once and I suspect it was because I was too enthusiastic tightening it up and weakened it in the process.