This is regarding the 1996 F-150 in my sig:
1996 Ford F-150 XLT 4WD Single Cab Long Bed 135Kmi; V-8 302, Auto 4R70W, Ford 8.8 3.55 non-LS rear end

All the boots on the ball joints in the steering linkage are torn and the steering is a bit sloppy. Doing the usual poke/prod with the front of the frame elevated to get the tires off the ground, we elicited some slop in the joints. And we saw a bit when parked, wheels on the ground, and my wife was turning the steering wheel back & forth. So all that needs replacing. I have sprayed all the nuts/threads with penetrating oil two or three times already.

QUESTION #1:
Is removing the castle nuts at the two outer tie rods / ball joints and at the ball joint at the pittman arm (Items 6, 6, and 1 in the diagram), then matching my new hardware to the old (thread/turn counting, etc.) a good approach?
Rather than taking it all apart piecemeal.


QUESTION #2:
How do you tell if a pitman arm / "Steering Gear Selector Shaft Arm" is bad? (Item #7 in the illustration.)
The factory service manual talks about replacing it if it is bent. Mine is not bent. Does the hole through which the ball joint runs wallow out? I suppose I could compare. Some folks have a devil of a time getting it off, resorting the a die grinder and air hammer. Maybe my Milwaukee 12v dremel wanna-be would be able to cut the nut. but I have no air hammer or compressed air to run it.

I have all the parts bought already from Proformer. I would have preferred Ford/Motorcraft, but Proformer is supposed to be good quality. We'll see. I also bought a pittman arm from Delphi if I think I need it.

Thanks for any pointers.

 

1) Sure. You can remove the tie rod ends from the knuckles and the drag link at the pitman and remove it as an assembly. I guess you are going to count the threads that are showing and try to match that? It should work but you will still need an alignment.

2) Is the stud loose in the pitman arm? I have never seen an arm go bad. There are no moving part to go bad. I don’t know why you want to replace the pitman arm. When I get a steering gear from the junkyard I don’t bother to remove it. Simply attach my drag link to the one that was on there.

It is a ball and socket type joint but “ball joints” are in the knuckle.

 

Well, sometimes if the nut was loose on the pitman arm, it wollers the hole out of round and then the pitman arm needs to be replaced
If you just tighten a new drag link in there with the oblong hole, you run the risk of breaking the stud on the pitman arm off when the truck is in service

 

Ok. That is why I asked…

If there is no play/ slop between the end link stud and the pitman arm then there is no reason to replace the arm.

 

Correct, I missed reading that part of your post

 

manicmechanic007
Yep, that was about the only failure mode I could think of: wallowed out hole through which the ball stud attached.

My4Fordtrucks
I do not detect any slop in the pittman arm itself and the stud is not loose. If I don't see anything off/oblong when I remove the whole linkage assembly I will leave it be.

 

Out of 4 tie rods there is usually only a couple of real bad ones
The fact that you need another alignment makes most people replace all 4
Same with the ball joints
I sometimes buy cheap Chinese kits with all the parts sometimes and have had good luck so far
I do use Ford Idler arms and Pitman arms on the newer trucks though

 

When I buy tie rod kits for the Dodges, I get the ones with the new sleeves too
Time is money