Stake sauce

I'm about to replace my steering gear box. This is the first time I've done this.

The FSM says the Pitman arm nut should be properly staked. Is STAKEing just ensuring that it is torqued to the 185 ft-lbs, or is there something special that I need to do??

Also, should I apply anti-sieze to the Pitman splines, and threads.

Thanks.

Staking is a mechanical joining process whereby material from one component is swaged into an interference fit with an adjoining component. In the case of the sector shaft nut that retains the pitman arm, you would torque it to spec and then peen it with a hammer & punch to provide interference with the threads in one or a couple of locations. If you are reusing the old nut, I don't think it would be necessary to re-stake it, however.

The torque spec is probably for clean dry threads, so I wouldn't recommend applying anti-sieze compound to the threads... it couldn't hurt to put it on the splines, however, as it will just make it easier the next tiime you go to remove the pitman arm.

Good luck!