I have removed the pitman arm on my 1977 f150 with a torch although I had my steering sector removed from the truck at the time. the trick is to heat the section away from the arm where it is thinest and avoid heating the shaft and housing any more than necessary. If you do it right the arm will almost fall off and the shaft and housing won't be mare than warm. Keep a fire extinguisher handy just in case (an oil and or grease would be a disaster).
Mark

 

I have removed the pitman arm on my 1977 f150 with a torch although I had my steering sector removed from the truck at the time. the trick is to heat the section away from the arm where it is thinest and avoid heating the shaft and housing any more than necessary. If you do it right the arm will almost fall off and the shaft and housing won't be mare than warm. Keep a fire extinguisher handy just in case (an oil and or grease fire would be a disaster).
Mark
PS the arm will be OK if you let it cool off on its own.

 

I tried heating around, but not, the shaft and just the pitman arm and it didn't help at all. I'm really at the end of my rope here and about to go insane-I have banged on it for half an hour with a 2lb and 4lb mallet (2lb cause it has a nice long handle) while the puller is cranked all the way down and the thing has not budged at all!! Should I just remove the steering box with it attached and try to pull it off then?? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

You will have to heat the side away from the arm almost to glowing orange color and the ring will expand enough to drop off the hard part is to not heat the shaft or the housing in the process If possible keep your puller on it and when it starts to move be ready to crank it off with the puller use you air ratchet or Impact wrench if there is room.
Mark

 

A couple thoughts, did you lube the bolt on the puller? That will reduce the friction when tightening it, and you should be able to crank it down a bit more. Have you hit the end of the bolt? Tap the top squarely aiming right down the bolt. Don't got insane hitting it, but hitting it straight on sends a different kind of shock into the system.
Also, I think when I was doing this the first time on my Ranger I was getting as fed up as you were. It was also winter, I was in an unheated garage with barely any room to move or tools to do anything, so I was pretty unhappy. At one point I gave up, and either went to warm up for an hour or two, or said screw it till the next day. When I went back I went to check if the puller was still tight. Barely turned it and it popped right off. The tension over time loosened it.

Last idea, read this someplace. Remove the puller, make sure the nut is still on, but loose. Go for a SHORT ride and wiggle the wheel back and forth. Make sure this is a SHORT ride, like just down your street, and be vary cautious. The force of driving around (especially if you hit a pothole or two) should loosen up the pitman arm. BUT BEWARE!! IF THE NUT LOOSENS AND FALLS OFF, YOU'RE SCREWED!!! because then the pitman arm drops, you lose steering and you crash. Don't do this if you live on a busy street where there are kids playing. You might find just going up and down the driveway will work.

Are there instructions that came with the seals? The one with the spring goes in first, its the oil seal. The spring side should go in first you'll see what I mean when you get the old one out. The other seal is a dust seal, it goes on second. The larger o-ring (might be a square one) goes on the other end of the shaft. You don't need to worry about it unless you want to open up the box and pull the sector shaft out. You can probably put that on the shelf for future use unless the top of the box is leaking.

 

I don't know if I'm up to heating the arm up that much, I want to keep it and reuse it.

There is no room to hit the puller bolt head dead on, I have 4x4. Yes I lubed the puller bolt and it is like 20* inside my shop right now. I think after all this I'm up to just replacing the whole box.

 

Heating the arm won't hurt it unless you over do it. The reason you heat it is to make the arm loose enough to get off. The arm is actually pressed on the shaft. Or keep cranking on the puller it will eventually come off if your puller is strong enough good luck!
Mark

 

Jackwagon's become a permanent word in my household I'm afraid.

 

I am in the process of removing the steering box and I found out that my return line is rusted to the fitting Looks like I'll need a new return line and the pressure line doesn't look like it will last too long either. Question is, what pressure line will I need after or before 8/01/92??

 

Only you can answer that question.... When was your truck built? Look on the door tag, it should have a build date. Your best option is to walk into the parts store with the old one in your hand and compare it to the different options the computer tells the parts guy you need.

Did you get the pitman arm off yet?

 

Nope, I was gonna pull the gear box and then attempt to get the arm off on the work bench. I'm pretty sure it was built in august but I'll double check. It is rare around here for any parts store around to stock parts for my truck. I've only been lucky a few times so I usually order online.

 

The lines rusting is not uncommon, I had to heat the return line fitting in my box to make it let go, almost caught the steering pump on fire in the process, lol.

Not sure on the pressure line thing, but I'd imagine if your truck was built in 08/92 then you'll need the 08/01/92-up line... What the difference is between the two lines I have no idea at all, since the box didn't change.

 

I think the difference was the way the line was routed, but I found the right one (after 8/92). I tried heating it, but it just blew into flames of which I had to blow out I'm just gonna cut the line and get a new one cause it don't look like its letting go anytime soon.

 

Haha, yup, I got the flamethrower action in mine too - to make things better I have a transmission cooling hose running right above the steering box, and the plastic loom around that caught on fire too - turns out compressed air makes an excellent fire extinguisher, just remove the rag that you placed in there in a futile attempt to prevent the fire starting to begin with, lol Installing new lines is not a bad idea anyways, you're working with like 20-y-o rubber at this point.

 

I'm replacing PS steering pump too while everything is apart and the pulley wont budge. I have the correct tool that locks a collar around the pulley and it wont move at all. Can I heat it up with a torch of will it weaken the metal strength of the pulley? Any tips on pulling the pulley (serpentine setup)??

BTW: I am planning on putting anti seize on the pitman arm splines, good idea??