im replacing the gearbox on my truck and the pitman arm will not come off. i broke 2 pickle forks and a pitman arm puller. its almost like its welded on. im just curious if anyone has had this happen or if theres some fancy trick to gettin these things off.

 

They like to hang on pretty tight..... Might wanna pull the box, and try and take it off on a bench, instead of laying on your back.

Hit it with chemicals. Soak it good. Rap on it a couple times with a hammer... soak it some more. Use to fair sized hammers (I use a pair of three pound single jacks), hold one against one side of the arm, and SMACK the other side pretty friggin' hard. Couple good whacks, and it should fall off.

 

did you try using a hefty 1 handed sledge to beat on the side of the pitman arm while hitting/workin the pickle fork

 

i used a dead blow hammer but that seemed a little soft. i'll have to run and grab one of them sledge type hammers and try puttin it on the bench and breakin it off. how heavy of a hammer would work the best?

 

As heavy as you can comfortably swing with one hand.

 

The only thing I'd recommend is getting another pitman arm puller, and soaking the hell out of the splines with a really good penetrating oil. I strongly advocate not using heat on it; it's far too critical a part for that. Heat will change its molecular properties, and probably not for the better.

Not all pitman arm pullers are created equal; if you broke yours, I have to believe it wasn't the best quality or best design available. That is what you need. Get a really beefy one, with the jaws that you can tighten together; oil the threads, and put as much torque on it as it as it can take, according to a torque chart. (My puller is an OTC 7311 with a 3/4" - 16 threaded shaft; max. torque is 420 ft. lbs.)

Like me, you probably don't have a torque wrench that goes up that high, so just put about what you guess to be 250 pounds of *** on an 18" breaker bar, or all of the output from an average 1/2" impact wrench at about 90 psi.

If nothing budges, rap on the end of the threaded shaft; that should let you snug up the puller shaft again. Repeat as necessary; it will come off.

***

I wouldn't get it off by bashing it, but that's up to you. It's insanely strong, and forged as opposed to cast, but given how absolutely critical a part it is, I like to pull them off.

 

I used a pitman arm puller and a 3 pound shop hammer. I was ready to use a torch as I was going to replace it anyway but I had to get it off to rebuild gearbox. I bent the heck out of the pitman arm puller, but the pressure helped it pull off. Do NOT beat the arm back on the shaft of the new gearbox with a shop hammer. Use a dead blow if necesary. It will jack up the ball screw inside and knock everything out of whack.

 

as i was puttin pressure on the puller i was smackin the arm with the dead blow but nothing. i was using a 40" breaker bar and the thing was gettin really hard to turn. i could believe how hard it was. it was a pretty cheap puller i only paid like 15 bucks for it. im just gonna have to try puttin it on a bench and beatin that arm off with a big hammer and and a lot of chemicals.

 

"im just gonna have to try puttin it on a bench and beatin that arm off with a big hammer and and a lot of chemicals".

Are you guys really recommending this?

Buy, borrow or rent a puller like this:




Do you really want to wail on your pitman arm like that?

 

i have a 5 lb sledge that always gets the job done for me, but it can get a wee bit heavy if im layin on my back and im beatin on stuff. dead blows are good for puttin stuff on, and sledges are good for gettin off(blows should be the other way round )