[Mad Mac]

I unbolted my front wishbone to look at the radius rod ball (see pics). It is the original type without a rubber ball. The ball seems OK as it still has the black paint from an earlier restoration, although I have not measured its diameter. The bolt heads may be slightly "wallowed out" but the rod in the groove across their heads is still holding them well enough to allow the nuts to be tightened. My problem is that I don't know how tight the nuts should be and if I tighten them too much, they rise above the split-pin holes in the bolts. Tightening them up further would be possible if I used longer springs or maybe put a spacer-washer between the housing and the springs. That would surely be easier than installing spacer washers under the bolt heads inside the housing, as described in some previous threads? How tight is too tight?