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This coulda been bad...real bad

johnnyc

johnnyc

NAXJA Forum User
NAXJA Member
Location
La Habra, CA
Got home from the M&G tonight. Had to go back outside to move my truck off the street for street sweeping tomorrow. I was trying to pull a u-turn and all of a sudden, my truck wouldn't steer.

IMG_20110301_215159.jpg


Danny and I tried to turn the tires by hand, but couldn't. So I called AAA to move the truck from the curb to the garage inside the complex.

Grimm is coming over in the morning and bringing me a pitman arm. Should be a pretty easy fix. But it just freaks me out that this could've happened. I'm just glad it didn't snap on the freeway five minutes before.
 
Glad you got home before the break. Wow! no warning signs makes me want to get a flash light and check out my pitman arm. Grimm good lookin out.
 
My wife said "he must be a good man, because the big G was looking out for him". I said "I thought I was the big G baby, :("


lol!
 
Just a stock pitman arm.

Who sells a strong aftermarket one?
 
Thanks guys. Yeah, it was pure dumb luck that I didn't have a serious accident.

Got the two pieces of the pitman arm off. Definitely looks like this had been brewing for a while. Part of the broken off iron is shiny, so that was the final break. But the other part of the break looks older. And when I put the two pieces together, they don't match up perfectly. Looks like there was some twisting going on.

I'll post some pics later. Grimm should be here shortly.

Thanks to everyone who offered up a pitman arm. After seeing this happen, I'll be carrying a spare. If this happened on the trail, you'd be SOL. And they're easy enough to swap out.
 
ANY signs of rust on the break area? Showing it has broken over time and finially just fully separated?


DOH I posted and looked back and you answered my question a min before I asked it lol...
 
No rust, but my steering box leaks a bit so some ps fluid got into the crack and darkened the old break.
 
johnnyc said:
No rust, but my steering box leaks a bit so some ps fluid got into the crack and darkened the old break.
Click to expand...


Dang, is PS fluid aided in this then i need to swap out my box ASAP. I asked if it was stock VS another manufacturer to see if was something to keep an eye out for or keep away from. I have a spare somewhere too and will be taking it with now since i have seen this :p
 
All fixed now, thanks to Mike again for coming over.

Looks like the pitman arm nut was not torqued properly, allowing the pitman arm to slide down a bit. The sector shaft is tapered, so this little movement messed up some of the splines on the pitman arm and put undue stress on the arm itself.

So check your pitman arm nut and make sure it's torqued to 185 ft/lbs.

misc012.jpg


misc011.jpg


misc015.jpg
 
185 ft/lbs. is a lot. Same as the unit bearing nut. My torque wrench only goes to 150, so Mike had to give it that little extra oomph.
 
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