I just got the knuckle off my 44 and am about to take it to the machine shop to have it milled flat and the holes drilled and tapped.
Question is, Does it matter where on the knuckle the arm is placed? Like should i take the drivers knuckle off and bring it so they know exactly where to place it?
And anyone have any tips for gettting the old steering arm off the drivers side knuckle? nuts are loose but the conical washers wont budge and i can't get the studs to back out.
thanks

Search for Billavista's webpage. He has some good writeups on exactly what you are asking about.

Oh and to get that arm off, get a bigger hammer.

i had the page book marked already but i can't find anything on where the arm should be placed on the knuckle.

...the arm that is.

Someone else posted this after I tried all sorts of crap.
Take a air hammer and a punch bit and hit the ends of the studs (I did mine with the nuts on to protect em) the conical washers will pop right out, and then you'll need to bash the arm off with a hammer.

I tried all sorts of crap, but this worked like a charm.
heres the link:http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=16365 its at the bottom.

MJ

Originally posted by Alaska ZJ
Search for Billavista's webpage. He has some good writeups on exactly what you are asking about.

Oh and to get that arm off, get a bigger hammer.

Fawk that. Just tap on it with a 5lber on the front of the steering arm (tap down) it'll loosen it up enough to spin the cone washers out by hand.

You need to have the arm in the exact same place, or your steering will be sorta messed up (ackerman angle i think). So take the one with the holes already in it, make a little cardboard template or use the high steer arms, and after the top is milled flat, transfer punch the holes on the knuckle. Do it right so you don't have to worry about it.

Just tap on it with a 5lber on the front of the steering arm

ha, maybe in Arizona! Not anywhere that has a winter. If you don't have an air hammer, you can get a small cold chisel in the little split and tap them around till they loosen, I had to do this and use a lot of heat.

Now, as for your arm...if it has pre-drilled holes, you need to locate so that the holes in the arm are over the 3 cast in bosses in the knuckle, The bosses are visible from underneath...pic on my page somewhere. The easiest way to do this is to transfer from the other knuckle, as mentioned as they

If your arm and knuckle are blank, and you are drilling both together, you will want to place the arm on the knuckle so that:
1) The cutout fits around the balljoint
2) You can drill the holes throgh both and have sufficient "meat" around the holes in the arm while at the same time hitting the 3 bosses in the knuckle and
3) Such that the end of the steering arm will clear your wheel / tire.

http://billavista.tripod.com/Steering/Index/SteeringIndex.html

maine jeepah, I should be able to find a air hammer and i'll try it,

Mike, I'll try that first since i already have the 5 lber

Wide J , Well right now i'm only going cross over steering with just the drag link above the springs but later i will probaly go full high steer so i'll keep that in mind

Billavista, if tha hammer doesn't work i'll try the heat and tapping again, And thanks for the tip on where to drill the holes, thats what i needed, i remember now that it has been mentioned somewhere here befor but couldn't find it . And the arm is from Roggy and already is drilled out, so i guess between the arm and the 3 cast in bosses, I should be able to figure out where i need them drilled. Maybe you could put a little note on your page about the cast bosses.

Thanks to all, for your help

I just went through the process of getting the steering arm off and boy what a pain in the ass!!!!. I was able to get out one washer buy hand and the rest were so stuck in there!. What I ended up doing is I heated up the arm till it glowed red hot and then took the air chisle and hammared on it. I managed to crack the washers from the arm a little. They still wernt going any where so in the end I torched off the entire area around the washers and removed them with a hammar and chisle afterwards. I was then able to pound on the arm till it came off. When u go to take the studs out your best bet will be to heat the knuckle till it glows and then use a pair of vise grips to turn the studs.

Originally posted by mike


Fawk that. Just tap on it with a 5lber on the front of the steering arm (tap down) it'll loosen it up enough to spin the cone washers out by hand.

Mike that may work in good ole Arizona...but us rust belt folk have a few different issues to deal with.

The arm on the Chebby that I removed recently was a PITA.
PB Blaster/mini sledge everywhich way...full on big ole sledge and lots of pissing and moaning, every way you can "tap" it. :rolleyes:

The air chisel did the trick in about 30 seconds...go figure.

Don't knock it til ya try it. :flipoff2:

MJ