Lude Generation

Right guys today I went down to a local self service garage to do some work on my Lude. I was changing the 4ws for 2ws.
The job was going great, to well. All the split pins came out easy it was a dream.
I fitted the 2ws into place and started putting it back together. Then the problem! Both arms with the ball joint at the end. This one.. Won't take old nuts.



Now I thought that the castlated nuts from the old arms would simply fit these two BUT they don't! They just slide down it. The thread on both seem to be thinner or totally buggered/worn. See here..



4ws left 2ws right.

My car is currently left over at the garage so I need to get this fixed ASAP before it starts getting expensive!

Should they be the same size and thus take the same nut?? Or are they infact smaller and require just a new nuts!?

I've been told that I can't just buy the ball joint section and I infact have to buy a whole arm... Which is stupid as they are bolted on not reverted, suggesting they are changeable. The new arms are £300 each which Is not happening!.

If it's not new nuts then has anybody got any arms they can sell pretty please!

Thank you in advance

you can get aftermarket arms from the US

Take to long to get here dude. There's 2 on ebay for £30 each but they are from Oz I need them like tomorrow or the day after as my car is stuck on there ramp lol

If you ate ubet mega stuck I'll send u mine but I will need them back. Problem is youll need the tracking setting as they are fully adjustable after market jobbies

I'd expect them to be the same and have checked on Lings, both are 12mm castle nuts with the same original part number.
So yep, they should be the same.
Either serious wear on your new ones (which looks quite possible!) or they're after market.
After market parts don't always stick to the original thread size/pitch, because oem is a metric fine, whereas standard metric threads are cheaper (especially if they go for nyloc rather than castle/pin).

Those replacement arms you have are in bad need of new boots on the ball joints too tbh, so I wouldn't fit and forget them as they are...

How far is it to drive back from the ramp to home and do you need your car back on the road straight away after?
If it's not far at all (or just to get the car off the ramp!) to get you out of the jobby you could fit the arms anyway, whack the ball joint tapers home so they stick, slip the nut over and put the split pin through. That would just about keep the taper in well enough to move the car. Wouldn't drive it far at all though!!!

BTW, I do have a complete 2ws subframe available. There are some pics in my breaking thread.

I can't sell you just the arms on their own I'm afraid purely because I couldn't undo the bolts to get the arms out of the rear subframe, so it only goes complete I slackened one off but couldn't get it out. The other side I couldn't even slacken off. It's in good nick so I'm sure it will, but I couldn't get it to shift at the time.

One bolt on the end of the radius arm needs drilling out (it sheared when I tried to undo it) and the split pin holes on the ball joints need drilling out, IIRC (I think I had to snap the split pins) and also IIRC the threads are a bit worn BUT they do come WITH NUTS that still fit and do up!

Ok update. After wondering what the hell I'm going to do I remember Holly's Lude is 2 wheel steer so I have taken her arms off to fit to mine. I will still need to replace hers lol but the pressure is off.

Wurlycorner. Don't know why the nuts won't fit. The arm looks standard but guess it could be aftermarket
Really strange. I tried about 20 different bolts and couldn't get any to fit lol.

The garage itself is great it's called ramp it up. Very friendly and very helpful. They have 4 ramps with a large selection of tools. Their rates are very good also. I will be using these when ever I need to work on. Y car it's so much easier than on your back in the wet

GreenyUK wrote:it's so much easier than on your back in the wet

Amen to that!

GreenyUK wrote:I remember Holly's Lude is 2 wheel steer so I have taken her arms off to fit to mine.

Has she noticed yet?

Just wait 'till she goes to the shops.

yeah she wont be happy