4000Q ball joint woes.

[Marc Swanson]

> I'm confused at what the stainless nut contributed to the problem.
> Did the nut back off?


no, that wasn't the issue.

The ball joint pops into the bottom of the strut.  The bolt that clamps
the bottom of the strut normally has an unthreaded portion that the ball
joint 'lip' rests on.  I got careless and replaced that bolt with a
fully threaded stainless bolt.  Had I used a partially threaded
stainless bolt that mirrored the OE bolt (or the OE bolt itself of
course) everything would have been fine.  The failure came about because
the threads that were touching the lip on the ball joint wore away at
that surface over time until it was worn down enough to slide right past
the retaining bolt.

--
-Marc
87' 4ktq
88' 90q
www.mswanson.com/audi