I have one but I'm not sure its big enough. I had bought a puller for doing the tie-rod ends on my dads ranger and it was too small for that but I'll see if it works. Is it safe to use a hammer at all in the process of taking it off, cause a hammer can get very tempting sometimes I'll have to take the tie-rods apart first, then proceed with the arm.

 

Often what I'll have to do is tighten the puller as far as I can and if that doesn't do it, a gentle tap with a small hammer on the tightening bolt of the puller will pop it off.

In theory, you can smash the end of the shaft on the steering box hard enough to cause the arm to come off - but by the time you hit it hard enough and often enough, the box will be totally destroyed. Did that on my old steering box years ago because I didn't have a puller and the core was shot anyway. Thinking back it would have still been easier to just buy a puller instead haha.

 

Thats exactly where mine went.

It can be fixed in the truck, but is a bit of a pain in the ***. Get a pitman arm puller, they're pretty cheap, a tie-rod one is too small.
*First loosen the big nut holding the pitman arm on. I think the proper size is 32 mm (I have an 1-1/4 socket I enlarged that fits, couldn't find the right one) Don't take the nut all the way off, just loosen it, you don't want the pitman arm and puller to pop off and smash you in the face. The nut is massively tight, and the angle, plus the crossmember gets in the way (or maybe its the dana60 I put in?). I had to use some extensions and a u-joint on the impact. If you don't have an impact, use a good sized cheater bar. (like 3-4 feet) A big pipe wrench can work if you don't have the right sized socket.
*Put the puller on and crank it as tight as you can get it, then tap the bolt with a hammer. If it doesn't work, walk away for a while and let the tension work. Then retighten and tap again, it will pop off.
*The seal is held in place with a large circlip. I had a lot of trouble getting that out as the pair of circlip pliers were too small, a medium sized one should work.
*There may or may not be a washer or spacer, then the seal it self. Be careful not to score the shaft when you pull it out.
*Follow the directions with new seal, again there may or may not be a spacer or washer that goes before or after the seal in the bore. If you want, you can play around with the order to some extent to change where the seal rides if the shaft is pitted.
*Circlip goes back in, then pitman arm, then nut. The torque is something crazy like 250 ft-lb's or something like that.
*Add fluid and bleed the system.

You may want to test the seal before getting it all back together, in that case fill up the system and run it before you put the pitman arm back on. The steering box should be ok with the lack of fluid. I don't know about the pump, you can be cheap and try your luck, you never know.

The part you need is a sector shaft seal. The sector shaft is the fancy name for the part the pitman arm bolts to. I may not be called that. Here is the kit at autozone, I think its the one I used (after I screwed up the seal in the rebuild kit...)

Duralast/Power Steering Gear Seal Kit (8778) | Power Steering Gear Seal Kit | 1988 Ford F350 1 ton P/U 4WD 8 Cylinders M 7.3L Diesel | AutoZone.com

 

Thanks for that tec, I just got the 32mm nut to turn with a pipe wrench, I dunno how I will torque it though.

 

Murrue used a big air-powered gun when replacing my steering gear box, both for removing the nut and then for reinstalling it - do you have a tool like that? We rented the big socket set and the puller tool from the parts store, not sure you can rent the air gun there too, and you will still need a compressor for it.

 

I have a compressor and a 3/8 impact gun, I just don't have the sockets that go that big. My metric set stops at 25mm i think and the standard at 1 1/4 so I might just buy a single socket thats 32mm. I needed the 1/2 gun anyway, now I have a good reason I hate renting things, every time I rent something I need it again. I'm pretty sure I'll replace the sector shaft seal and pray the PS pump didn't go on the way home with no fluid. Anyway, thanks bubble, I knew you had a steering problem, just wondering when you would pop in, thanks.

 

Yes, sorry about that, I have been running some errands last few days. I just talked to Murrue and he is having some problems with his internet, so for the time being you are stuck with my semi-useless self

Anywho, the impact gun he uses is an asian copy of an IR-brand tool, it's super-powerful and it easily tightened that big nut even with a long extension on its end. The socket we rented was not a single tool it was part of a set of several tools that are used for front-wheel-drive axles.

 

Na the help is great I had an small idea of what i was dealing with-just no experience with it before. My 3/8 gun is a craftsman pro which is a copy of one of the IR's too, with the adapter and enough air, I might be able to tighten the nut tight enough (gun specs go up to 230 ft/lbs of torque, but that might not mean be what it seems to).

 

I'll probably end up renting this.

OEM/32 mm. (1.259 in.) axle nut socket (27051) | Axle Nut Socket | AutoZone.com

 

Unfortunately I do not think your impact gun will be strong enough - the nut in question does not only prevent the arm-thing from falling off, it also presses it on the shaft - from what I saw when Murrue put the arm-thing on the new box it would only go up on the shaft just enough so there is a bit of thread sticking out the bottom for the nut to catch on, then when he used the gun on full power the nut was pushing the arm-thing up on the shaft as it was threading on. The arm-thing stopped about 3/8" away from the steering gear box, and there is maybe 1/8" of thread sticking out the bottom of the nut.

Also, I do not know if you can rent only that one socket, what we got was a set of 5 or 6 sockets.

 

I might have to put it on with a breaker bar then or buy a bigger gun. I took it off without a gun so maybe I could get it on without it.

 

I think I just used a breaker bar with a cheater pipe when it came time to do mine.

 

When you take it off, you're only loosening the nut. When you are installing it back on, you're tightening the nut and pressing the arm-thing at the same time. While removing the nut, the gun rattled for a second and then simply spun it out with seemingly no effort at all. Reinstall sounded like a whole more effort for the gun, it was rattling quite loud and it made that sound the whole time till the arm-thing stopped moving up on the shaft.

A breaker bar (if this is what I think it is) may work, I do not know, I was only a spectator after all

 

Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Its kinda the same when you put the nut on a spring/strut assembly. I'll try the breaker bar and if that doesn't work I'll have to get a big gun

 

There is a much cheaper alternative, a cheater pipe on the breaker bar. I don't know what kind of breaker bar you have, but I have a couple nice sections of pipe I use from time to time. My craftsman bar fits into a 1" pipe. I do have a larger section of pipe, about 4-5 feet long that will fit onto my pipe wrenches for bigger stuff that needs some serious torque.
Its doable by hand. I had to do the same repair on my Ranger before I had any air tools (or much else for that matter). I think I borrowed a pipe wrench and piece of cheater pipe to get it off since I didn't know what size it was. Once it was off, I took the nut to the hardware store and got a 1-1/4" socket which didn't quite fit, but was the biggest one there. A bit of work with a dremel and I used it with a breaker bar and cheater pipe to reinstall. You can do it by hand, but like I said, the torque is like 250 ft-lbs... a big impact is easier and faster (but expensive).

Though if you want a bigger gun anyways.... its a good excuse to get one. I got an IR-2135Ti on clearance at Sears a few years ago, and man its sweet! I've only had a few things it wouldn't work on, but once loosened with the 4 ft cheater pipe, it had no problem getting the out. I think those were some spring bolts that were pretty rusted.