well i got the new seal, it went alot quicker the second time,

for those of you that ever need to do this heres a step by step


-remove pitman arm nut with 1 5/16 socket

-using a pitman arm puller (or a good 2 jaw puller iv been told) remove the pitman arm, you may need to jack the bumper up a little to get enough clearance to use the puller as the diff gets in the way....

-remove the snap ring from the steering box, youll need some good snap ring pliers here and id reccomend having severel different angled tips available as mine was gummed up good and hard to get at, again you may need to jack up the chassis to get enough clearance to work...

-put the pitman arm back on and snug the nut up tight, you may need to have someone in the drivers seat wiggling the steering wheel to get it to fit the splines right, if you dont have anyone then jack the front wheels off the ground and with the steering wheel dead center (mine was 4 full turns lock to lock) and the wheels straight put the pitman arm back on....

- lower the vehicle from the jacks and place a oil pan under the power steering pump plus have lots of rags handy, fire the truck up give her some revs and turn the wheels left to right working that power steering pump, the seals will blow out the bottom of the pitman shaft and all the oil will come gushing out...note the order in which the seals came out...

-remove the pitman arm again

-i reccomend removing the steering box as it is hard to work with the diff being right there, also it doesnt take to much to distort a new seal and cause it to leak, but use your discretion, removing the box is easy, there are 3 bolts on the side of the frame that should be removed last, remove the 2 hydrolice hoses going to the box, plug them off or something so they dont get contaminated, slide the shield up the steering shaft that rests on the rag joint on the steering box, remove the bolt holding the pinch clamp right from the shaft as there is a grove that holds the steering shaft on it if it were to loosen off.... you may need a second pair of hands to drop the steering box as its heavier then i anticipated....

-once the box is out clean it all up and inspect the pitman shaft and housing for wear, using a good fitting seal driver or pvc pipe carefully tap the first seal in then carefully tap the second seal in, install the new snap ring into the groove, make sure the snap ring is fully seated in the groove or it will blow the seals out (thats what happend to me)...

-center the steering wheels and tires and put the steering box at dead center and reinstall the steering box, torque everything to spec.

-when filling the power steering system you may need to run it to circulate the oil a tad bit to get it topped up....

-it may take a bit of revs and some working of the pump to get it to seal as the seal actually seals itsself with pressure from the system, (once you get it apart youll see how it works)

the first time i attempted this i tried to remove the seals without blowing them out with the pressure from the system and i infact nicked up the inside of the housing where the seal slids into with my screwdriver and hammer method, this caused the new seal to get tore up as i drove it in, the second seal got tore up aswell but so far its not leaking, if it leaks i gotta get a whole new steering box so we shall see, i also tried to drive the seal in with a screwdriver and man when i took that seal out it was a complete mess, so the few tips i seriously reccomend are:
1.remove the whole steering box from the truck
2.blow the seals out with the pressure from the system
3.install the seal with a seal driver or good fitting pipe etc.


good luck anyone who tries this and thanks for the help...,

-gbm-

 

What order the pitman arm seals go? one is solid and one is a spring

 

On mine anyways there were 2 pieces to the seals.... the inner one was like a "cup" and it was installed with the cup facing into the box so when the pressure came on it would force the walls off the seal outwards and theres your seal, the second seal (outer seal) was basicly just a hard piece of plastic or metal with a rubber coating type deal i think it was just there to keep the dirt out and act as a spacer between the "cup" type seal and the snap ring.....

-gbm-

 

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE ,I`am so thrilled to do this since I drove to the coast an back with out power steering while towing my WW 26'er and had to move it once to dump the tanks ,do you know how hard it is to back a trailer with out power steering ,and to add the drive to and from the coast is mountainess .So today I have recovered some what and I now can attack the mess