Pitman Arm

Plan to pull the pitman arm off of the ross box tomorrow. Never done one before. Heat and a pickle fork? Dauntless. Any advice?

 

I really like this style of puller. I built my own and the pitman came off like butter.

https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B00061SMS0/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_D06851ZTERS59302ZCSF

 

DON'T use a pickle fork it will damage the splines on the sector shaft, and won't well work for the task anyway. A pickle fork works on tapered tie rods or ball joints, but is not designed for removing something on a splined shaft.

A simple puller like "boogie" made is what you want, and if you can't make one take a trip to the nearest Harbor Freight store and buy one. They don't cost much.

 

Thanks

 

If you are rebuilding your ross steering box you will likely find the inside diameter of the new bushings in the kit are undersized. This is by design so they can be reamed to fit the sector shaft. Before I bought the correct reamer for this I got by using a brake cylinder hone but in either case you need to be sure to clean it out thoroughly to remove any metal or abrasive dust. There is also a hole in the casting for lubrication, once the bushing is pressed in you need to drill through that hole into the new bushing before you ream it so that the oil will reach the shaft.

With new seals and tight bushings you don't have to worry much about leaks.

Fill it with 140wt gear oil. Do not use grease of any kind no matter what you may read about.

 

An adjustable reamer is the real ticket here.

 

You mention "Dauntless". I am not sure if that makes a difference but they made several versions of the Ross box and there are two different sizes of sector shafts / Pittman arms. One is 7/8" the other I think is 15/16". The previous owner of the CJ2A I bought a year and a half ago said he had rebuilt the steering box but it still had a lot of slop in it. I figured he had not replaced the bushings, but turns out he had installed the 15/16" Pittman arm onto his 7/8" shaft and stacked some washers on attempting to tighten things up. That baby would have stripped the splines on the first hard turn. That wasn't the only wreck waiting to happen due to the work someone had done on that Jeep, but it would have been the first thing to fail.

 

I sprayed my pitman arm with Rost-off the day before and then used an old harbor freight 2-jaw puller. The arm popped off without much drama.

 

Thanks guys. Always good advice here!