In order to solve the problem of path planning for the single joint failure manipulator, a fault tolerant path planning method based on kinematics model reconstruction is proposed. Firstly, based on the screw theory, the general kinematics model for the single joint failure manipulator is reconstructed. Then, followed by analysis of the manipulator workspace, the grid processing is carried out with the constraint of stable motion performance. Finally, the trajectory in the degraded workspace which meets the requirements of task is searched by improving the traditional A$^\ast$ algorithm. The correctness and effectiveness of the proposed method are verified by simulation experiments with the 7-DOF manipulator.