My steering gear box is leaking at the pitman shaft. I figured I would try replacing just the seal to save the expense of a new gear box. I rented a puller, but the pitman arm is so close to the gear box, the jaws of the puller will not fit between them.

Has anyone else had this problem?

I tried to pound the pitman arm off with a big hammer, and even tried to use a pickle fork, but no luck. I'm stuck. Any ideas?

David Kendall
93 Ford F150 4WD

 

David,

Are you using a pitman arm puller or a general use puller? Pitman arm puller doesn't take very much space to use. If not you can get a pitman arm puller from Autozone for the cost of a deposit which will be returned when you return the tool. If you are using a pitman arm puller then you will have to remove the gear to get at the pitman arm. Also, you don't want to be hammering on the pitman arm because you can cause serious damage to the steering gear itself.

John

 

Thanks for quick reply. I am using a pitman arm puller I rented from Oreilly Auto parts. It is a KD tools one similar to this: http://www.mytoolstore.com/kd/2289.gif

The jaws are pretty thin (about 1/8"), but the pitman arm is probably 3/32" from the gear box.

I looked at my buddies Bronco of about the same year and there is plenty of room to fit the puller.

I still have the gear box mounted to the truck. There seems to be plenty of room, it is really necessary to remove it?

 

David,

No you don't need to remove the gear. I misunderstood you and thought your problem is clearance around the gear. They must have overtorqued the pitman arm nut on such that you can't get the fingers of the puller in between the arm and the gear. The problem with trying to force anything between the arm and the gear such as a pickle fork is you rarely get the fork to push off anything as substantial as a pitman arm. Since the tool isn't yours you can't grind the fingers enough to get them to fit. Even at that you might not have enough metal for the fingers to hold if you take enough off to clear. Any possibility that you could get a small hydraulic jack between the arm and say the truck frame such that you could apply some hydraulic pressure to get the arm to move enough to get the puller on? You would need to keep the ram on as close to the center of the pitman arm as possible so that you are not angling the arm off.

John

 

Thanks for the idea.

I found a shop that specialized in power steering and they said they would rebuild the whole gear box for $175. R&R was an extra $150. I figured it was worth it as I seemed to be on a path that lead to me doing more damage than good.

From what I have read, it is much better to rebuild the whole thing and their price was comparable to what it would cost me for a reman.

So... I'm out $150, 3 hours of trying, 4 bruised fingers, and about a quart of power steering fluid. But at least this project introduced me to a great Ford Truck Forum.

 

That is a very good price. I had to replace a Saginaw unit on an 82 E250 van and it was $200 exchange from Autozone and $225 from NAPA. That labor amount isn't bad either.

Good luck

John