I am losing it on this repair. My gearbox has been leaking for months and it was resealed 7 years ago, so this time I went with a rebuilt one that I got a deal on ($175) from a guy that bought it, but sold the truck before he put it on.
Anyway, I got the pitman arm off after breaking one puller, and then I decided to replace the pitman arm since the part that connects to the relay rod was worn and the boot was torn.
The pitman arm is on and connected and the gearbox is bolted to the frame, but I can't figure out how to slide the universal joint on to the gearbox. When I took out the gearbox, I ended up taking the universal joint off of the shaft and then sliding it off the gearbox, I couldn't duplicate the procedure in reverse so I went ahead and connected the ujoint to the shaft, but that doesn't seem like it will work either. OK, what am I doing wrong? Any tricks?
Its cold out, and I just want to get the truck back on the road as soon as possible...help, please.
Thanks in advance.

 

leave the pitman arm connected, unbolt the three bolts. make certain there are no burs on the input splines, clean it with your favorite penatrant oil. and clean and check the same on the shaft coupler.

make sure the lock bolt is out of the way on the coupler. align it all and get it in by hand, as far as possible. then slide in one mounting bolt. use a hammer to tap it in the rest of the way.

taking of the wheel will make this job much easier.

dont F with the rag joint, they are difficult to put back together

 

Thanks for the quick reply. I will try that in the morning. If anyone else has any suggestions, I am all ears.

thanks again!

 

As 80W90 said, make sure that lock bolt is out. Its needs to be completely gone, or the joint will not slip over the shaft.

 

I took the rag joint apart when I moved my PS box foreward. I didnt have any trouble putting it back together. Maybe I just lucked out.

 

I went back at it this morning and though it was hard getting the thing out, something did not look right. After thinking about it for a bit, I determined that the gearboxes were different and luckily, the guy I bought it off of, agreed to meet with me to compare them.
I took out the gearbox.( I am getting good with a pitman puller) and headed over to compare my old box to the one I bought. Oh, what I failed to mention is that he had to ship my old gearbox back if he wanted to get a core charge returned to him and we were splitting that.
Yup, I have the older style, but I never compared them side by side. DOh!

I am going to buy a used one here in town and cross my fingers. I can't fork over $300 for a rebuilt one, and I know I would mess it up if I tried to reseal it myself.

thanks for the input.

P