So I rebuilt my power steering gear box a couple days and got it all connected up to the car including the pitman arm. Well I forgot to center the steering with the wheels so it's messed up and I was going to take the pitman arm off so I could fix it. Well when I torqued the nut for the arm, I didn't pay attention to the how much of a gap there was between the arm and the steering box. When I went to take it off today, the puller could not fit in there and I've been trying with a fork spreader to separate it enough to get the puller in there, but it just will not budge much at all.

PLEASE HELP!!! I really need to get this car back on the road ASAP so if anyone has any suggestions or anything, please let me know.

Also, the puller fit just fine when I took the steering box out before i rebuilt it.

Here's a picture of what I'm looking at.
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I'm having a hard time figuring out what we're looking at in the picture. Could you take a few more with some from a distance to give perspective?

So I'm guessing that's duct tape wrapped around the head of the pitman arm joint? Or is that the steering box end of the pitman arm?

And is that some sort of aftermarket rack and pinion steering assembly in the photo, to the left of the pitman arm, with the bolt in it?

Anyway, from the picture, it looks like a pickle fork would be the best option to get in there and break that joint.

This could damage the boot on the pitman arm of course, but unless the tape is covering up a boot I don't see there's one in there to damage.

 

What other technique other than the fork have you tried?

 

I'm guessing we're looking at the side of the recirculating ball unit, and it's wrapped in reflective heat shield. The car is a piston engine setup, and the stuff to the left is the joint between the exh manifold and the exhaust pipe.

If I'm correct, I want a prize

 

Oh my goodness, no wonder he's having trouble with it.

I'm still recommending a pickle fork, with a good 3 lb. sledge and some bracing to hold the joint still. A couple of good shots and it should let go.

 

That does look like some kind of a exhaust pipe, sadly..


One thing you might try is to take two hammers and strike the pitman arm simultaneously on opposite sides where it fits around the shaft, sometimes this will help knock it loose. The fork may not be working because it is applying force asymmetrically, so the force is trying to **** the arm in relation to the shaft.

 

I was trying to hide the fact that I've got a V8 in my FB haha I guess the cat's out of the bag...

Anyways, I got the pitman arm off finally, but I was wondering, somehow when I took the gear box apart, I believe that the preset on the Sector Shaft Adjusting Screw got out of wack and isn't adjusted properly. Does anyone have any information for me?

Looking at the picture, that is the bottom of the gear box where the sector shaft is connected to the pitman arm.

 

I don't know about the power steering units, but on a manual box, setting the sector shaft preload is done after installation, using a dial gauge to adjust it to the minimum load that gives zero lash.

Basically, you lock the steering wheel in place, back the pre-load screw out (which raises the sector shaft in it's bore), then progressively tighten it while trying to rotate the pitman arm by hand. As soon as the the pitman shows 0 thousandths of free rotation on the dial gauge, you lock the sector adjustment down.

If you tighten it too far, the gears in the box wear very rapidly. Too loose, and steering is too sloppy.