how to tighten ball joints

[narfire]

Put new ball joints on the 72. Got three tightened just fine by holding the arm down and kinda jambing the center bolt of the arm while tightening the nylock nut. Of course either being a fiat or my luck (75% rule again) the last one,even after sitting on the arm and pushing the top arm, is giving me grief. I can't seem to tighten the last 1/16-1/8 to get snug.
Any secrets to this evolution?

[htchevyii]

I had to put the weight of the car on it and bounce on it a few times to get them to seat tight enough so that they didn't spin.

[kmead]

Using a pair of welding C clamp vice grips to hold the upright and the ball joint together has worked for me in the past. You might also put a few small scratches in the face of the ball joint shaft to create some friction as you tighten it down.

[engineerted]

Ok, Two methods, 1. use the old nut or a nut with out the nyloc material to snug down the ball joint then replace the nut with the new one. 2. use an impact gun to to snug the nuts down then torque to final with a torque wrench, its tight in there but with the proper swivel joints it works and is the fast way to do it. The same goes for the steering arms, zip zip and your done.

Ted

[maytag]

Ok, Two methods, 1. use the old nut or a nut with out the nyloc material to snug down the ball joint then replace the nut with the new one. 2. use an impact gun to to snug the nuts down then torque to final with a torque wrench, its tight in there but with the proper swivel joints it works and is the fast way to do it. The same goes for the steering arms, zip zip and your done.

Ted

the impact wrench method has always worked for me as well. then torque 'em down by hand, once they quit spinning.

[narfire]

Thanks for the suggestions. Ended up using a combination of all of them.
Sat my arse,insted of the car, on the lower arm and used a older nut to chase the threds a bit with a vice grip holding the shaft. Left the shaft marked up a bit. Put the hub back on and with a impact and a wee bit of tension on the shaft, zapped the nut on and tightened with the wrench.
Thanks again... till my next issue.
Chris