Pitman Arm PROBLEMS

smokeeater

New Member
Joined
Sep 29, 2006
Location
New Bern
OK so I have tried everything under the sun to get the pitman arm off of my TJ. I have tried Impact gun with pitman arm puller including a 3/4" gun. Now I have broken 2 arm pullers I am out of ideas. If anyone has any suggestions PLEASE HELP.
 
Get another puller and try this. When you get good bit of pressure on the puller get a BFH and give the pitman arm a good couple of whacks then run the puller on in a little bit then hit it again and so on. It should come off after several tries. Worked for me.:beer:
 
Already tried the Big F**king Hammer. I was thinking maybe a gear puller but no sure if that would work. I guess if worse comes to worse I will have to cut it off (don't really want to thow.)
 
Don't use the impact on it.
Put the tension with a breaker bar or big wrench.
You'll see the puller start flexing a bit.
Hit it with some PB blaster, and let it sit for 15 minutes with that tension.
Tighten a bit more, watching CLOSELY on the puller.
let sit, then tap with a hammer, rinse, lather, repeat.

Should pop it off without breaking the puller.
That was what I've had to do on 2 jeeps now. (Mine and a buddies. Broke the puller on both using the impact.)
 
Hit the side of the pitman with the hammer rather than trying to knock it up or down. As long as you're not using a total piece of shit puller, it just about always works.
Otherwise you can try the careful application of heat.
 
All advise above is good advice. Blue wrench(torch) will work if none of the above will. Just heat the pitman arm around where it attached to the sector shaft. They are tight for good reason. It is a tapered, splined fitment.
 
It does help to remove the drag link. Also you will want the tires off the ground. It really should not matter but I couldnt get mine off untill I lifted it up and pulled the drag link. I also had to heat my arm a little to get it off.
 
When the puller has a load on it hit the head of the bolt with a hammer several times. This, some rust penetrating spray and heat should get it off with a little bit of work. If you have a big air hammer like a CP714 you could use it also. Otherwise cut it on 2 sides, whack it with a chisel, put the puller back on and it will fall off.
 
ive done 4 yj's. broke 2 pullers before finding the easy button. acetalyne torch to the arm while under tension from the puller. (objects expand when heated, loosens the fit) i couldent get mapp gas to burn hot enough to work.
or plan "B", zip wheels in the grinder and cut that puppy off! carefull not to damage the splines, of course. i assume you are taking it off to replace it with a dropped arm.
one mistake i made in my younger days was putting it back on, i just couldent get the arm to seat all the way up the splines. even with a huge cheater on the breaker bar. after i stripped the nut i realized that its not supposed to cover all the splines.( tapered) hope this helps
 
I know it took liberal application of heat (oxy/acetylene) when I swapped up to a durango box.

I mangled the old XJ box, it went back for core with burnt seals, one ear full of weld and LOTS of hammer marks. Having the box off the vehicle and in a vise helped a lot.

Sounds like you're swapping arms, not boxes so I'd echo what everyone else has said. Low heat, PB blaster, lots of curse words, and gradually ratcheting up the tension on a puller. Love taps with a BFH will help too.

If that doesn't do it, cut the mother.
 
suck it up and cut it, you big pus**... and are you doing acls friday? dale said he thought you were, but didn't really know
 
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