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Broken ball joint.......bad LCAs?

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redneck1210

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Discussion starter · #1 · (Edited)
Short version: Had a 6'' Pro Comp kit installed approx. 14 months ago. Lift shot couldn't get my LCAs off, similar to this post:

http://www.titantalk.com/forums/titan-performance-modifications/125110-lower-control-arm-issues.html

He replaced both with ones from Carquest that were apparently genuine Nissan. This week while making a 3 point turn the passenger side ball joint broke off totally and the fender slammed into my 35's and got bent to hell, etc. etc.

The insurance adjustor said they'll pay for everything but the broken LCA. So I went searching on the web to see if there were any bad LCAs out there and found this:

2006 Nissan Titan ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING Recall Report

Does the above apply to me and have you guys ever seen a ball joint just break like that without hitting anything? It also dumped gear oil all over the ground as you can see in the pic? What most likely happened with that?
 

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#3 ·
I haven't ever heard of that happening. I would have the insurance fix ur truck then call the dealer with your vin and see if you are covered. I haven't seen a ball joint fail unless it was put in a horrible bind. Not very common that's for sure. But they could very well be defective. Sorry to hear about your truck, that blows.
 
#4 ·
When your ball joint failed, it yanked the axle shaft out of the front dif and that is probably what happened with the gear oil. And yes it is common for worn out ball joints to fail even if you don't hit something, especially with the extra stress that a lift and big tires puts on your front end. Just replace the ball joint with some moot greaseable ball joints which have a lifetime warranty, and be done with it.
 
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#5 · (Edited)
Holy Snap! Now, I managed to crush and obliterate the grease pack and bent the lower ball joint bolt, but this is the first one I have seen sheared off like that... You will need to pull the LCA off, have the btoken ball joint pressed out, then have the new one pressed in, then renistall everything...Also, I would check to see if your PC spindle in front of the ball joint mount is notched to allow for full turning radius (no notch will strike LCA)... That may have added stress as well, causing your bolt to be sheared the way it did, but I haven't heard of any prior to this...

Looking at the first attached pic, that spindle is not notched... See the piece in front of the mount? That needs to be ground back 1/2" (both spindles) so it will not strike your LCA while turning... not sure if it added to the ball joint bolt failing, but I would most definitely grind it back before reinstalling the new ball joint...
 
Discussion starter · #6 · (Edited)
Update to this thread. The shop repaired everything and only replaced the LCA with the broken ball joint. The truck has been making a lot of rattling noises for a few month so I took it to a shop to have it checked out. He said the ball joint on the passenger's side is now broken.....wtf?? So something must be going on here. The shop said that when they lifted the truck it took the pressure off the broken joint and now it can't be driven.

Should I be harassing the shop that originally installed he lift??
 
#7 ·
I would talk to them about covering the second LCA replacement... There's no reason for the joint to fail simply from the lift installation, unless they left the LCA on and allowed it to just hang without support, which could've caused the ball joint boot to rip and eventual failure...
 
#10 ·
redneck1210 said:
DRTY-

What exact part are you referring to when you say to notch the PC spindle?? My good ol boy mechanic is fixing it now and he doesn't understand what you mean. He may call it something else.
Click to expand...
There is a small vertical section (about 2" tall) on the front inner spindle that needs to be shaved in about 1/2" where the LCA will strike the spindle on full turn... Look at the front, lower section of the spindle where the LCA connects to the spindle...
 
Discussion starter · #11 ·
Follow up to this older post.

I ended up replacing the driver's side LCA shortly after my last post. I've had the truck aligned about 3 times and it would never stay put for more than a few months. Took it in today for some normal maintenance and they said they couldn't align it because the ball joints were too worn out!!

This is obviously getting ridiculous, so any thoughts? Is something in the lift not installed correctly, bad factory part? I'm going to call Pro Comp and Gregg at PRG to see if they have any suggestions.
 
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