Front end work troubles

[Larryjb]

Wow, so many people talk about doing a pitman arm in 20 minutes or less... There must be something wrong with me. Granted, I'm doing tie rod ends, pitman arm, and idler arm, but that's not much more.

First I had trouble with the pitman arm to relay rod. I found out I needed a wider pickle fork, 1-1/8". Maybe I should have known that, but I rarely read about needing such a fork. Then I had trouble with removing the inner tie rod. I finally got it with a little more torque on the end of my crescent wrench. That took a couple of hours to accomplish, mostly finding a suitable pry to stick on the end. Then I had to remove the pitman arm nut. Another couple of hours, finally a stronger neighbor came along and just got it with a little extra leverage.

Now I'm trying to remove the pitman arm. I have this: http://www.lislecorp.com/divisions/products/?product=245&jsn=271

but the claws won't fit around the shaft between the pitman arm and the steering gear. I'm having to file the gap wider. I know some one used a pickle fork on this, but I'm not comfortable using such a tool near the splines. I tried the Proto 2-arm gear puller, but I was afraid it was going to break. Also, my air for my impact isn't strong enough for this job I think. The only way I can get more air is to upgrade to 220V, and I'm not going to go into that expense. I'm just about ready to remove the entire steering gear and take it to a shop to have them swap the pitman arm for me.

Some guys seem to get this job done in a matter of a few hours. This it getting into days now.

Larry

 

[Larryjb]

I finally got the job done.

I read about other having many of the same troubles I have had, and about a million various solutions. Of all the solutions, there is usually one best solution.

I already mentioned the 1-1/8" pickle fork. An absolute necessity if you're not using a puller.
If I ever do this job again (I may, because my steering box may be on it's way out), I'll invest in a 34mm impact socket for the pitman-gearbox nut.
If the claws of the pitman puller don't fit, lift up the rubber seal around the shaft to slide it into the gearbox.
Removing the pitman arm from the gearbox wasn't bad either. Just use the impact to put some tension on the arm, use a hammer and tap the side of the pitman arm. After about 4 cycles of this, the pitman arm came right off.

When I do my gearbox, I'll switch back to an ACDelco pitman arm. I'm shocked as to how much less spline contact there is. I'm not comfortable with that. Coming from Moog too.

Putting things back together was fairly straight forwards. Knowing what I know now, I probably could have finished this job in a day.

Larry

 

[benski]

There's nothing like having been in to a project before to make things go much faster a second time...I'm glad you've got things mostly sorted out with tools needed as well. I'm also surprised to hear that the MOOG parts didn't fit as you would have liked; they're pretty much my "go to" supplier for suspension goodies.

 

[Rocket Man]

I heard about the Moog pitman arm and went with the ACDelco Professional for that and Moog for everything else. I had a shop do mine because I needed to have it done the same day. Kinda glad I didn't do it myself.

 

[southboundchicken]

Definitely got to pull the box to make it easier then a pitman arm puller and impact gun had mine off pretty quick...... Its always easier the second time around

 

[Larryjb]

Now that my linkages are tight, I can feel the issues in my steering box a lot more so I've ordered an ACDelco Professional box. (I saw that there is an ACDelco OEM reman box as well, for much more money... should I have purchased that instead?) Now that I've done everything else, this should be a piece of cake. I just hate dealing with fluids. I always manage to make a mess on my garage floor.

Does anyone know the wrench size for the fluid lines? I need to purchase the correct sized flare nut wrench before I start. I could figure it out using my combination wrenches, but if some one happens to know, that's helpful. I wouldn't be surprised that one is imperial and the other is metric!

Larry

 

[SnowDrifter]

I don't know the flare but size off the top of my head. To be honest unless they're seized on there you can just use your standard wrenches on it. A crow's foot adapter works well too.

In the future, the easy way to get the Putman arm out is to notch it as deep as you can with a grinder then break it along the score point with a chisel. After that it falls off. No pullers needed

 

[Larryjb]

Has anyone ever had reman steering box where the threads were already cross threaded?

I started the pressure line on the steering box by hand, then used the flare nut wrench to tighten it down. It seemed to tighten normally for the most part, but seemed to approach 20 ft-lbs with still another turn left. Bottom line, I couldn't get the pressure line to seal. I removed it to check to see if the o-ring had become unseated, but it was fine. I did find a few fine metallic shavings on a paper towel when I tried to dry up the threads on the steering box, so I'm pretty sure it's cross threaded now.

I am highly aware how easy it is to cross thread these things. I did start by hand before I had the steering box secured to the frame so I could feel when it started to thread on. This part seemed to go alright, maybe a little stiffer than usual, but not so stiff that I suspected cross threading.


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So now that I have a cross threaded box, is there any hope of me getting this to work, or will I have to order a new box?

Ugh.

Larry

 

[Larryjb]

I finally got the box in last night.

After chasing the threads with a tap, and cleaning the threads of the fitting with a die, I managed to connect the pressure line to the box. I noticed that the threaded plastic plug screwed on better, so I do believe that the threads were somewhat mangled when I got it. This was an ACDelco Professional remanufactured box, so I didn't go cheap on this.

Even so, the nut seemed to be getting tight before it seated, and it wasn't holding a vacuum during the vacuum test. Then, suddenly, it freed up, and I was able to finish tightening the nut, and it held a vacuum from the reservoir.

The whole job actually isn't so bad, in retrospect. Just check the threads on the box, and be prepared to chase them out with a tap. (I had to get a tap from a specialty machinist shop. No regular shops like Canadian Tire sell the 18mm 1.5 pitch taps.)

Larry

 

[mattbta]

How does it drive?