LCA castle nut / cotter pin question

Rebuilding my UCAs and replacing LCAs this weekend due to bad ball joints and frozen cam bolts. Got the passenger side all wrapped up tonight but the OEM LCA ball joint castle nut is super tight. I mean when I hit 103 ft lbs the 'high' part of the nut is just starting to cover the cotter pin hole. To get the cotter pin I'd have to tighten the full length of one 'spike' on the nut. Would be extremely tight..

Sorry if that doesn't make sense it was mid 90s in the garage all day today and cutting those cam bolts out really sucked.

Question is do I just run it without a cotter pin at 103 ftlbs? Do I machine a bit off the nut? Add a thin washer? Sell the truck and buy a Ridgeline?

 

You can get a different nut. Most applications call for threading on a self locking nut and if it doesn't align within the specified torque window then you get a new nut and try again.

 

You can tighten it to the next notch to install the cotter pin you won't hurt it with and extra 1/6th of a turn.

 

You will probably be fine turning to the next spot also. I don't know if Toyota accounts for drag torque on self locking nuts (unlikely) but 103ft/lbs to turn the nut does not equate to 103ft/lbs of actual torque applied to holding the parts together.

 

It's time...

https://automobiles.honda.com/ridgeline

 

I’ve always kept tightening until the next slot.
The FSM doesn’t state what to do if it doesn’t line up.
But Moog says this

 

Ditto

 

Yup, I always tighten past torque to the next slot on castle nuts. What I was trying to explain is this one is too tight imo. It essentially has to turn an additional 60 degrees, not quite 60 but damn close. I used the biggest breaker bar we had to really giver some and it still wasn't close enough

New nuts are not an option right now on the weekend. But I can try swapping them from side to side. Was too tired to think of that last night

 

Could also try sticking a washer behind the nut to adjust positioning.

 

What I do if its worryingly far out is re-seat it.

I wish they were nylock nuts. I hate cotter pin castle nuts, and I've never actually seen one catch a loose fastener.

 

You're supposed to use a torque wrench on these?

 

Ok, seriously, I'd go to the next slot and if that was giving me too much trouble, I'd add a thin washer under the nut.
I've had to shim a barrel nut to get a handguard to line up properly. Very similar principle here.

 

Yes, nyloc are awesome. Except stainless on stainless those can be tricky. Wish they were OEM in certain locations.

While I have a bunch of smart folks here, what do you think of these cam bolts? Thought I recall reading that they should never be rotated so they hang down like this? My numbers from the alignment shop have always been good so I never really laid much attention
This is the driver's side rear looking forward

 

Nylock are one time use “technically”.
They are not user friendly for repair. That’s likely the reason they use cotter pins.

 

Yup usually only see on aftermarket and domestics. Toyota never uses it.

I just hate corroded pins that I have to drill out after breaking off.

 

I think technically that castle nut is single use too.

Thoughts on that rear cam bolt? Should I flip it 180 as best I can? It will be at least 100-200 miles before I can get an alignment done

 

If they are, I’ve used them more than once.
I like the style cap like on the CV axle. It has 2x as many options. You can turn 1/12 instead of 1/6.
And doesn’t require a lot more turning.

 

leave it alone if your alignment is good. Take the cam out and readjust right before the alignment

 

Ended up swapping the castle nuts from side to side and that worked. 103 ft lbs was good on the drivers side, only had to go a bit further on the passenger side.

For what its worth cutting both lower control arms out in a ~95 degree garage on the hottest weekend of the summer absolutely sucks a big one. New take-off LCAs with all new hardware installed and drowned in anti seize. Ill be adding those bolts to my list of stuff to check every year or two from now on. I cant recommend the carbide tipped Diablo metal blades enough. Burnt through two el cheapo blades on the first arm. Got a carbide blade the next day and that chewed through the other arm in about half the time no problem. Plenty of light oil on the blade to keep the rubber bushing from sticking.

For the new cam bolts I set everything back to where it was before and it wasnt even close. Could tell it was way out just looking at it. I should have assumed the old LCA bushings had worn and sagged over 10 years / 100k miles. I got it dialed in close enough by eye. Hope to get new tie rod ends in this weekend and that will pretty much wrap up the front end refresh in time for a real alignment next week