Hi folx,

Tried to help a buddy install a steering system on his 95 Pathfinder last weekend. We got the outer TREs and the idler disconnected and the only thing left holding the linkage to the vehicle was the pitman arm. He knew it might be tough so he had been hitting it with penetrating oil daily the week before, and he had picked up a cheap pitman arm puller from Harbor Freight (yeah, I know) in preparation. Well, the HF one died, so did the $45 one we bought to replace it:

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/xterra/Pullers.jpg

We gave up and put everything back together and will try again, but we could use some tips if you have any. I found one thread in this section that suggested various combinations of pentrating oil (I have some PB), heat, and brute force. Any other tricks in the bag?

Thanks,
Brent

I've read elsewhere to use high quality pitman arm pullers.

Nice pics. :flipoff2:

I had a pitman arm that was stuck on there like no tomorrow. That fawker would NOT come off. 3 days worth of Kroil every 3 hours and 4 guys taking turns on it finally broke it loose. And when it finally let loose it shot off there like a cannon! :eek:

put good force on it with the puller and hit it with the biggest fing hammer you have as hard as you can all the way around it repetedly until it falls off. always works for me.

I had been smacking the arm with a 4 lb. maul while it was under tension to try and jar it loose and work the oil in, but not outright wailing on it.

Thanks, keep 'em coming,
Brent

I had a 82 Nissan 720 pickup that I broke the pitman arm while playing desert racer at about 30mph :laughing: . When it came time to replace it I bought a pitman arm puller. Put it on there and tightened that thing like there was no tommorow. It didn't budge. I tried and tried and tried and tried. Called my Dad (RIP) and he came over, I tightened it up, and he got in there and beat on it with a BFH, thought he was gonna hurt something he was hitting it so hard (naive 18y/o at the time.) About 10 minutes later it was off. Also, there was no penetrating oil or anything.
YMMV

agree...BFH and complete disregard for the welfare of that pitman and it'll fly off. Heat is usually a bad idea, too easy to mess up the box seal and I've "heard" that Kroil and other penetrating oils actually "seize" things when heat is added... (blatent unsubstantiated rumor spreading)

Had an idea. In addition to heat on the arm to expand it, would it be wise to hit the shaft with a few spritzes from an upside-down air-duster can, basically liquid freon to rapidly draw heat out of the shaft and have it contract a bit? Or might this be bad for the shaft from a metallurgical standpoint?

Brent

After 4 days, 3 cans of WD40, and 2 pullers, I finally took a cutting wheel to it and had it off in 15 minutes.

i know its a day late and dollar short,, but here is the high dollar route that will work too
snap on pitman puller (http://buy1.snapon.com/catalog/pro_det.asp?P65=yes&tool=all&item_ID=10316&group_ID=1245&store=snapon-store&dir=catalog)

WD-40 ain't the best for this kind of thing ..... I like PB Blaster (think that's correct name) or chop it off like you did.

Penetrates much better than WD-40

put the pitman arm puller on the pitman arm and get it TIGHT like its about to break.

get out the air chisle and chisle on the pitman arm like you are trying to drive it off. if you don't have an air chisle, a hammer and chisle may work...but i always get them off with my cheapo air chisle.

its the vibrations from the air chisle that works it loose.

10 ton Porta Power works well:D

I sencond the air chisel approach. Put the pull on it and load it up at tight as you can get it. Put a "mushroom" head bit in the chisel and go at it like you're trying to drive the arm off. It generally only takes a burp or two of the chisel and the arm goes lauching across the shop (so be prepared for that).

The air chissel is good, but I have had to resort to pulling the box and using a 20 ton press before, just leave the nut on a few turns so the box doesn't go shooting across the shop.

K-D tool pitman arm puller is the best cheap, warrenty included, arm puller i have found. must be the black one.

BFH like 12lbs+ best is the 20lbs with 2.5 ft handle. cannon shots like no other.

everything else suggested is also good, not to cut unless last option. I have also been told that you can take the nut off and pin the tires or tire against a curb or what not and turn the wheels back a forth, suppose the hort and vert pressures might work it loose?

be careful with the bash it with the BFH until it comes off point of view. You can do some damage to the shaft, and the bearings in the box. If it doesn't come off with lots of PB blaster and attempts with the puller alone, then try the air hammer pounding on it from various angles (cross axially to the shaft) with the puller supplying pressure. If that doesn't work, then put a BIG BFH on one side of the pitman, and then bash on the opposite side with a smaller BFH (all still with the puller supplying pressure). this way, the larger hammer's mass absorbs the impact (that whole transfer of momentum thing from physics) after being transmitted by the pitman, and minimizes the damage to the shaft or the bearings. I've done several this way with success, and used the same principal on some stubborn tractor steering parts with tapered seats.

The only reason I'm jumping on the BFH beat it till it comes off approach is a guy in our club did this when he lifted both his ZJ and his TJ recently, and now needs to replace two steering boxes because of severe damage he did during the install.


HTH
Chad-

I went thru the same thing with my CJ. I broke the first puller and then I carefully cut it on both sides with a cut off tool. I didn't go all the way thru to the splines to prevent damage. Then I used a 3/4" chisel in the groove that I had just cut. I sharp hit and it came off in 2 pieces. To put my new one on I warmed it up in the oven and it slid right on. I made sure to cool it with water to prevent overheating the box.

Two tools works better than anything.

That span-on puller and an impact driver. pops off everytime and the puller actually keeps it from flying across the room and breaking a window (no, that has never happened to me, I swear :flipoff2: ).

Tim

Originally posted by KAcrawler
put good force on it with the puller and hit it with the biggest fing hammer you have as hard as you can all the way around it repetedly until it falls off. always works for me.

Exactly. I've never had that method fail for me.

If you have a pitman arm that has a cross bolt and a slot in it. Take the cross bolt completely out and drive a cold chizel into the slot. Worked for me on my Chevy and on the KW big rig I had.

When I needed to pull the pitman from a big Ross PS gear to replace a seal in the field, I used a quality 5/16 chain to lash a 12 ton bottle jack to the pitman arm and jacked on the shaft(how's that for redneck? :flipoff2: ) Still would not come loose untill we smacked the pitman on the side with a 2 lb hammer while under pressure
I've actually bent the Snap-on pitman puller trying to get one off a saginaw gearbox. It did come off, though.

tighten the arm remover as toght as you can, soak it with some pb blaster and go to bed. Wake up in the morning and try again if to the pitman arm isn't on the floor allready....

air cutoff tool. grind through as close as you dare to the splines. then put your cheap puller on it and it'll come right off.

It's all about the right size puller. I tried for hours with a big heavy duty 3 arm puller and couldn't get it off for the life of me. So I bought a smaller 3 arm puller at Kragen and the pitman arm came right off on the first try. The smaller one was able to get a better grip inbetween the pitman and the steering box because the gap was too small for the bigger puller.