Well after being invited wheelin tomorrow I decided to take care of the sloppy pitman arm. Well it doesnt want to, I tried heat, oil, banging, the correct tool (puller), nothing. So i decided to grind the sucker off. Now I am so close but cannot tell if I am going through into the knuckle. They almost look fuzed together. Looks like I am buying a new steering box now too. And not going wheelin tomorrow. I am gettin up early to attack it again and see what can be done. Man this was a unexpected issue, I can usually pull off any wrenchin job. Well with a fresh start tomorrow I hope I can pull it off, Wheelin starts @ 12.

any tips?

 

Pitman arms rarely wear out, they are a single piece of forged steel. What part was sloppy? I've never had a problem removing mine. The key though is repeated applications of all the above items:

PB Blaster, apply puller, heat until the oil smokes, hammer on the end of the pitman arm and around the splined end. Tighten the puller then repeat. After a while it'll pop off, you just can't rush it. And when installing the new one, use anti-sieze on the splines.

 

I did all that except take my time when it came to the puller. Its the ball and socket and the end of the pitman arm thats sloppy. I will take your good advice, take my time an see what happens. Thanks. Tim

 

I used a heavy duty 2 jaw puller. The jaw's don't fit between the steering box and pitman arm. So I used a grinder to make 2 "shelves" in the pitman arm to hook the puller on.

This is all before I saw the pitman arm puller hanging on the wall behind the clerk at my local auto parts store.

 

Hummm. The proper pitman arm puller can take almost all of them off. By the way, this is not a fork type tool, but rather a round object about the size of your fist with a very heavy duty threaded anvil in the center.

I've had a couple I had to hot wrench off. One time I had to use the arbor press to take one off too. Just make sure you have someone handy to catch the steering box. Good luck.

-Wrench

 

I used WD40, a puller and a hammer. Took 45 minutes...spray it down attach the puller and tighten down...more spray wait 10 minutes, knock it with the hammer a couple times all around not just one spot spray, tighten, knock, take a break for 10 minutes, spray tighten and knock it came off......looked like the rust monster was try to make a new home...cleaned up real well reassy....