Bolt size needed for ball joint/knuckle connection

[das schmaus]

Hello everyone. I was in the process of replacing the control arm with ball joint and I striped the 14mm nut and 14mm bolt that tighten the clamp on the knuckle that holds the ball joint/control arm. We had to drill and now are left without the bolt size. Does anyone have any specs on the thread gauge or size?

[Turpro]

Wron section. If you elaborated on what year and model I could move the thread to the proper section and you'd get better responces

[das schmaus]

My mistake. 2001 Mazda Protege Mp3 edition.

[Turpro]

Moved

[SgtRauksauff]

not sure particularly, but if it's the "pinch bolt" that I think it is, any bolt that fits should work, size/pitch shouldn't matter.

I'm not particularly familiar with the '01 models, and I'm assumig they're similar to the BG suspension.


--sarge

[das schmaus]

My trusty auto dudes and I figured out. First, it was a size 10mm. Pitch doesn't matter because the pinch isn't threaded. (Thank god). But then we had a larger task ahead of having to get the bolt out of that pinch on the knuckle to replace the control arm. The following description is how we succeeded and replace the control arm with the ball joint stuck in the pinch and the bolt and nut that tighten the pitch rounded off and seized.

- First, disconnect the tie rod, the bolts that connect the knuckle to the strut, take off the brakes, and rotor so that you are left with a knuckle stuck by way of a ball joint to the control arm.

-Then, what you are going to want to do is take your saw and cut the ball joint off the control arm. The ball joint is pressed into the new control arm (so it doesn't matter) and this allows you to not have to deal with a control arm and also provides another favor later.

-Now take your knuckle to your shop clamp.

-With the knuckle in the clamp, take your saw and cut the bolt stuck in the clamp in half. (This is where having the control arm not in your way comes in handle). With it cut in half it allows you to work independently of two smaller length seized bolts rather than one long one.( If you have to drill one out, one might only have to be punched out from the other side, which became the case for us.)

-We used a grinder and ground each side of bolt to a flat surface with the knuckle.

-Then, we began drilling with a small bit to give a good pilot hole. After you have a good start, switch to the 10mm size. (It's good to have some motor oil handy by way of a cap full to dip your bit in so that it doesn't get too hot and generally help lubricate the bit.)

-Drill little by little and remove your shavings. After about halfway through with your drilling, stop and try the hammer and punch. Fortunately, at this point it finally broke loose and the rest of the bolt that remained on the drilled side shot out and we were able to punch other the other piece of the remaining bolt by just hitting it from a different side.

-You may not be able to punch it out at this point, but just keep drilling, stop, and try to punch. If it's no use, you can always drill both them out. Punching just helps to get it done faster, as well as keep the original walls within the pinch intact and not drill bit scarred.

[SgtRauksauff]

I usually take a chisel, and tap it into the pinch just a bit. It opens it up a bit, and releases the tension on the bolt. a hammer/punch works well at that point. I haven't ever had to even remove the knuckle from the car.

I thought you'd already had the bolt drilled out, and were trying to find the replacement bolt to put in, my mistake.

--sarge

[das schmaus]

No, you weren't mistaken. In my first post I said we drill already, but I was getting ahead of myself and wasn't aware the amount of work it was going to take to actually drill.