To pay or not to pay; install on a drop pitman arm

I've called a few places that quoted me an average of $70 to install the arm. I don't have a puller and need more gas for my torch. I've been searching around and it seems almost half of you broke a puller and all faced a high potential of damaging the box. So it looks like for the do-it-yourselfer this job has the high potential of being costly one. I'm thinking it may be best to leave this one to the pro's, if they f* up my steering will see some fresh new parts for free. Anyone here wishes they left this one to a certified techy?

A puller cost all of $15 at Advance Auto. Wack the arm a few times to loosen it up, soak it with PB Blaster....and then get busy. Paying someone $70 to swap a pitman arm is senseless.

How much lift do you have anyway?

If you don't want to buy one you can always rent one from your local parts store. I will agree though with Frank Z that if you wack it a couple of times after shooting it with some penatrating oil you should not have a problem getting it off. $70 is alot of money for something so simple my wife could do it.

took like 2 min to get mine off, hurry up

bbryant9415 said:

$70 is alot of money for something so simple my wife could do it.

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It's funny you say that because that is actually one of the few things my wife has ever done on my trail rig. She's never even changed a tire or oil, but she came out in the garage one day and wanted to help so I put her to work.

Do it yourself, it's simple.

Use the right puller. A pitman arm puller is not adjustable, and doesn't have hinged "arms" It's a solid piece that slips over the arm.

Most "big chain" auto parts stores will let you pay a deposit (price of the tool) and use specialty tools. They then refund the deposit when you bring the tools back.

Go for it, should be simple.

Frank Z said:

How much lift do you have anyway?

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I'm running the 6" skyjacker coil.
I'm off to get the puller now, I'd feel pretty worthless if I paid to get it done after these replies. I felt a little content at first after doing a quick search and viewing the amount of folks that had trouble with this.

Try tightening the nut first with an impact. On the last two I replaced I first tightened the nut to break loose the rust and hit it with a hammer like twice. Could be luck.

I rented the pitman puller from Kragen for $7.
Don't try and use a gear puller, or anything other kind of puller. Remove the nut, tighten the puller really tight, then hit the pitman arm with a 3lb sludge, then tighten and hit it some more. Repeat untill it drops off. I've never had to use heat.

Get a quality puller - not Made in China crap - if you're going to buy one (OTC tools are /great/ - and cheaper than Snap-On!)

You can DIY in about an hour or so - and you don't want to use a torch. Unless you want to be forced to change the Pitman Shaft Seal in the gearbox as well...

Here's how I've done them...

1) Remove the Pitman shaft nut.

2) Use a WIDE pickle fork. Tap it gently in under the Pitman Arm (Note - you're not trying to remove it with the fork!)

3) With the pickle fork firmly in place, use about a four-pound hammer and fetch the end of the Pitman shaft one and only one solid whack. Do so with the nut threaded loosely onto the shaft - the surface of the nut should be just about flush with the end of the Pitman shaft.

4) Back off the nut - if it doesn't come easily by hand, use a wrench. The nut will "chase" the last thread on the Pitman shaft to form it neatly again.

5) Apply the Pitman Arm puller. Do not yank on the wrench - use smooth motions, like rowing a boat (the same applies to extracting/installing ball joints, by the way.) Do have a "cheater bar" handy - about three feet will serve.

When installing the new Pitman Arm, apply never-seez to the splines only of the Pitman shaft. Always assume the next poor schmuck to do the job will be you - and you'll have a shovel and a Swiss Army knife. Plan accordingly...

Also, the Pitman shaft splines are "keyed" so that the Pitman Arm should only go on one way - thus saving you from having to re-align everything. You should see two widish splines (think "buck teeth") on the shaft and inside the bore of the arm. A little never-seez on the taper of the tie rod end won't go amiss, either - same reason as before. Try to not use the pickle fork to pop the tie rod ends - unless you have replacement boots for the joints ready and on hand...

I just cut mine of with an hand held angle grinder and slipped my 2" drop arm right on, took about 10 mins. Just make sure that you put on a support arm or you will end up ripping the stearing box clean off the frame. good luck getting that thing off it can be a real bitch with a puller.

My pitman arm puller was $6 at autozone on sale.

I bought it to take my drop pitman arm off and put the stock one back on. I got tired of tearing up steering boxes with the added leverage, and learned its easy to build your trackbar setup to not require a drop pitman arm.

As long as the swaybar isn't in the way, my 1/2" impact, appropriate socket and my pitman arm puller will get the job done in two minutes flat.

That was one of the most effortless jobs I’ve done on the heep yet. I feel a little embarrassed for even asking about it. Took about 20minutes last night and it came of safe and securely with no spring loaded action from the rust. This site got me a little hyped up when I searched and read about the arm shooting off. I was wrenching on my puller from behind the driver side tire with a creeper in front of my shin for a guard.
For all searchers about to do this install let the arm soak in liquid wrench or pblaster for a day or two. I let mine soak for 3 days spraying it when I woke up and before I went to bed. Mark your positioning some liquid white out between the arm, box and new arm. I put the new arm up flush with the old one to mark it after removing the arm nut, and whack the arm a couple times with a hammer throughout the pulling process.

Thanks for the kick in the ass to get up off my ass guys

cal said:

My pitman arm puller was $6 at autozone on sale.

I bought it to take my drop pitman arm off and put the stock one back on. I got tired of tearing up steering boxes with the added leverage, and learned its easy to build your trackbar setup to not require a drop pitman arm.

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I'm running a Rock krawler track bar with the d-bracket for 6"s of lift. The steering box is braced with rusty's box brace, hopefully this will help consume and absorb the added leverage put on the box.

Mike1331 said:

That was one of the most effortless jobs I’ve done on the heep yet. I feel a little embarrassed for even asking about it. Took about 20minutes last night and it came of safe and securely with no spring loaded action from the rust.

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I once tried for four days here to walk a kid through changing his spark plugs, but he was too afraid to try it. I had him drive to my office and he did it under my supervision in the parking lot while I drank my morning coffee.

He felt really stupid after the first one.

job well done sir, knew you could, now have go fun

I broke three pitman arm pullers trying to get mine off, so I finally took a cut-off wheel to it and pressed my new one on and BAM! done

cal said:

I once tried for four days here to walk a kid through changing his spark plugs, but he was too afraid to try it. I had him drive to my office and he did it under my supervision in the parking lot while I drank my morning coffee.

He felt really stupid after the first one.

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Went through that with my two boys. Now, they just come and ask me to borrow a tool that they don't have - whether it's a major maintenance job, or tearing down a front end. Once you get confidence instilled (and you have to let them screw up a couple of times for that - so they can fix it...) the lion's share of training is done. They were afraid to do their own tune-ups when I started. Now, they don't think anything of tearing an engine apart - a man could do worse.

how much lift can you have before a drop pitman arm is necessary?

Depends on drag link angle... I've found that if it's less than about 8 or less degrees from the ground you don't have any bumpsteer and the ball joints aren't maxed out. Over 10 bump-steer is bad...