Pitman Arm Removal

[Gary R.]

Re: Pitman Arm Removal

That looks like mine, it will work fine for your job. I made a plug to put at the end so the tip doesn't distort the sector's center drilled hole

[Dick W.]

Re: Pitman Arm Removal

Bill------


Is it a Snap-On or a foreign copy? I highly doubt one could buy the Snap-On tool for 45 bucks, even used. However, if it's not Snap-On that doesn't mean it won't work well, especially for someone that's not going to use it day-in-and-day-out.

And it might be like the off shore ball joint press that I picked up for pennies, after one set of joints the cclamp press is spread so bad that it will never do another joint

[Bill B.]

Re: Pitman Arm Removal

I said I would do a follow up as to the success I had using the Pitman arm puller that I ordered off Amazon. It worked great. I have the complete linkage out and apart and just waiting on the power steering kit to arrive Monday. The puller is very well made and quite beefy. I had to loosen the steering box to get it around the arm but other than that it worked well. I hope this helps someone else out when the time comes.

[Richard G.]

Re: Pitman Arm Removal

As I recently went through the steering box rebuild process I will comment on what I found;

The bushing in the kit were junky as delivered. Typical China quality. The wall thickness varied by over .003. (A special round anvil micrometer is required to read the thickness) This proved both the inside and outside bores were not completed on the same mandrel and didn't have the same centers. This proved to be one of the biggest Pains in the rebuilding process. The bushing also varied in outside diameters. This made the press fit in the box somewhat suspect on one of them. After installing the new bushings they were too tight on the shaft because they were not co-linear. To put it another way, the shaft could be inserted in either bushing as long as only one bushing was engaged at a time. As soon as both bushing were engaged the shaft could only be rotated using excessive force. A long pin reamer was required to fix this issue. (For me it was very difficult to find this tool) Don't forget that a pitman shaft bushing driver tool is required to remove the old bushings. I have a full shop and a lathe to fix the various issues. This job put my patience to the test as the quality of the parts was so very poor. Buy the time I was done I had wished I would have sent this job out. It is my understanding vendors that do this often make or purchase the bushings for the above stated reasons. I had the box hot tanked and then wire brushed the case. I was very happy with the resulting appearance. I understand painting it black is an accepted option. Getting the box apart and back together was not that difficult. Getting the tolerances were I though they should be was.
May be some additional information here; corvetteactioncenter.com
Rick

[Gary R.]

Re: Pitman Arm Removal

Hi Rick
I know exactly what you went through. I stopped using the rebuild kits a long time ago. I have plenty of stock on all the parts and the bushings I used to machine on my lathe. Now I have them made ( in USA ) to my spec and final fit them to each sector shaft. What you went through is common and in my opinion led to the conversions to the rack and Jeep boxes because guys would get "rebuilt" boxes back from vendors and they were no better then what was shipped out to begin with. Properly built the Saginaw box is very good.