Issue w/ lower ball joint nuts.

Hey guys so while finishing the install of some new axles as well as ecs's aluminum lca's w/ poly bushings I ran into an issue with the 3 lca ball joint nuts. I started with the inner single nut and it torqued to 75 lbs no problem. The next one basically felt like it stripped out before it reached 75 lbs, it got quite tight and then loosened up a bit and now endlessly spins but still rather tight. The top of the ball joint bolt isn't spinning either though, which is weird. I expected it was just bad luck so I moved on to the next one. That one did the exact same thing. On the other side I got them about is tight as I felt I could without them "stripping?, snapping? whatever the hell is going on". which was about 62 lbs when I back tracked with the torque wrench. I'm in dire need of an alignment but they've held up strong so far (about 30 miles now). Could this just be the case of shitty ball joints? They're definitely not oem. Also is it safe to be driving on these? What's the chance my ball joints could abandon ship?

Torque spec is only 44ft lbs (or 60Nm)....there's your problem

http://www.golfmkv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=54178

He is using aluminum lca it uses different specs I would not be driving this car with stripped out ball joints

Interesting

I've never done the aluminum LCA's, sorry.....carry on

I think the ball joints are different. The Passat ones that would normally work with aluminum LCA's look like they have a thicker flange when you compare them to the GTI's

Just wanted to chime in with an update in case anyone ever runs into a similar issue. I ran the ball joints for about 2 weeks while waiting for a chance to install some new lemfoerder ball joints I picked up, it was risky but in the end they held up. What happened was the lock nuts completely stripped out the middle of the bolts and locked the nut in place spinny endlessly, I ended up having to cut both stripped bolts out with an angle grinder. The new ball joints went in 20x easier and torqued to 75 lbs w/ no problem.

Glad you got it resolved. What was the brand of the ball joint that failed to torque up to spec?

^I'm assuming OEM. There's always the risk of stuff stripping out or breaking when installing new parts. Lord knows I've seen my fair of shit fail, break, strip, etc. Most times there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it, glad you got this sorted out.

How do you like the aluminum LCA's and ALK? Made a huge difference on my racecar, probably one of the more noticeable mods I've done over the years.