so i was doing a quick inspection under my pickup today, and saw that the cotter pin holding my castle nut to the TRE connected to my pitman arm was missing. i then found that i could twist the castle nut with my fingers. i got out a wrench to tighten it down, but it wont get any tigher, as in its spinning with the threaded part. i believe ive heard of people having this problem, and i believe the solution was to simply get new TRE's. true or false? or is there a way to tighen the castle nut?

 

Impact it, can you hold opposite end with Channel-locks or maybe above it?
It should be OK as long as the joint is still tight. Pin it...drive it.

 

Simple fix is..... Don't drive on the freeway!

 

The castle nut is spinning on the threads meaning its stripped? If so replace them. If its spinning and moving the tie rod with it. Impact...

 

Impact it is, thanks everyone! I actually dont know why I havent tried that yet, I now remember reading that that is what I should have done. Ill give it a try as soon as im home and update..

 

Sometimes when I have this problem on ball joints and TRE's and it still spins with an impact, I cut a notch in it so I can hold it with a screwdriver while I tighten it with a box wrench.

 

Ive heard of this too, seems like a great way to get the job done. What do you use for cutting the notch? Clearly an angle grinder would be far too thick, I would assume..

 

I usually use my cut off wheel and my flat blade fits in perfect.