I've got a MK bought as a nearly completed project. On the top ball joint connecting the hub to the top wishbone, the thread on the taper is not long enough for the nylock part of the nut to engage the thread. The hub I believe to be MK4 cortina. The thread on the ball joint which goes into the wishbone is 17.4mm x 1.25mm thread. The large end of the taper is 17.2mm and the taper requires to be 22.5mm long to pass completely through the hub. Can anybody help with a part description or better still part number

if it's got cortina front uprights, it's not an indy. it may be an MK locost, but the indy has indy(pendent) rear suspension. a locost should be dedion iirc.

as for the top ball joint, i've just got a quinton hazell one, QDD1117RHT, which has m18x1.25 main thread, and from the point on the taper where it's17.2mm approx, there's 34mm to the last available thread. it's in a moprod box, but carries the QH part no.

hth
tom

if the thread only just doesn't get to the nylon bit, you can grind some off the bottom of the nut so that it goes on further to engage the nyloc bit.

Cheers

Mark

Hi,
I've got the same problem. In my case the nyloc nut ends up virtually flush with the end of the thread when tightened up. I was thinking of sourcing some of those aerospace type nuts (Stiffnuts I think they are called?) I think they are not as tall as a nyloc.

I suppose I could grind off the bottom of the nut but I'm not sure if this is a good plan really unless the nuts were of a higher tensile strength than normal (eg. 10.9 Ton)

Does anyone know how much thread needs to be visible beyond a nyloc for SVA purposes. I seem to remember it being 2 complete threads?

Cheers,
Craig.

The good engineering practice has always been 2.5 threads visible after the nut. I thought of grinding down the nut but the nut is not that tall as standard and as this is a critical safety part, it is definetely not a good idea. From past experience you can get thread lock, which will effectivelly glue the nut to the bolt, but only if the nut and bolt are absolutely spotless and grease free.

You don't really want to be grinding your nuts for this application
Better to find out why there is so little thread showing. Wrong ball joints's?

They are possibly the wrong balljoints but they fit the taper nicely and were supplied by a Locost supplier along with a set of wishbones so you would hope that they would have known what they were supplying.

The balljoint is obviously important but bear in mind that the upper wishbone doesn't have any loads present which are trying to pull the taper apart like you have on the bottom joint. Therefore the nut won't see much load in service and probably "could" be ground down a couple of mm with no ill effects. I still don't like the idea though and will try to source a castelated nut or one of those aerospace nuts I was talking about earlier.

Cheers,
Craig.

ps. Here is the sort of thing I'm talking about on Demon Tweeks:
http://www.demon-tweeks.co.uk/products/ProductDetail.asp?cls=MSPORT&pcode=GODH14-08

[Edited on 21/5/2006 by craig1410]

What does the said Locost supplier have to say about them?

Way back when craig1410 suggested some nuts from Demon Tweeks. Well I sent one of my locknuts to them and they identified the thread as M12 x 1.5 and supplied me with two of the aerospace nuts Demon Tweeks part number GODHM14-120 description M12X1.5 6PT K_NUT. At first attempt they didn't want to fit, but after talking to DT the way the nuts act as locknuts, is their shape is distorted. Second attempt this evening they went on fine and even though they still don't quite cover the full thread the whole length of the locknut works to lock the thread and as such, Ifeel it will be perfectly okay.

this is a common problem, i believe that transit track rod ends are different to transit drag link ends, this is where the difference comes from. Not sure which is right though, i suspect it is the drag link end.

The drag link balljoint is the correct part, but I think this has been covered in the past and the consensus was that balljoints from different manufacturers have slightly differing thread lengths.