Hi Jeff,

Push down on the upper control arm to seat the shaft of the balljoint into
the steering knuckle. You need to firmly seat the joint - The taper will
lock it enough to tighten down the nut.

TomC

TomC
tcarrington@relitech.com
http://www.relitech.com/tomc
http://volksweb.relitech.com
http://checkerweb.relitech.com
85 Vanagon Crew Cab
82 Westy diesel=>gas conversion
81 Checker A-11 (Taxi)
65 Notchback

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jeff Kennedy [SMTP:kennedy@THERIVER.COM]
> Sent: Saturday, August 24, 2002 10:12 PM
> To:   vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject:      Help! with balljoints
>
> okay, its late on a saturday night, and i want to go home, but...
>
> I replaced the pass. side ball joints today, lower one was a bear, but i
> got
> it. Now, on the reassembly, I can't get the locknut to tighten on the
> upper
> ball joint. It just spins with the shaft, won't spin independently to
> tighten. I've tried everything I could think of, twice, no dice. HELP!
>
> thanks,
> Jeff