1996 c1500 pitman arm

[Curt]

I'm having trouble getting the pitman to separate from the center link... The one I rented from Oreillys was wayyyyyy to small.

I know I'm late to reply, but hopefully this will help someone else going through the same problem. When doing a suspension/steering job on our trucks, I'd recommend renting all 3 pickle forks from O'Reilly's (pitman, tie rod, ball joint). IIRC, the ball joint pickle fork worked perfectly to separate the pitman from the center link. It had a wider opening and a taller wedge. The pitman pickle fork was useless to me as I ran into the same issue. I used the tie rod pickle fork along with the ball joint one for my entire front end rebuild.

Also, much like everyone else you will need a pitman arm puller like @eran tomer posted to separate the pitman arm from the steering box.

 

[HeavyAsAChevy]

I actually didn’t have to rent the forks because my dad owns them from his body shop days

 

[HeavyAsAChevy]

I got it all put together and took it to get aligned. But the techs at Firestone did not do it right and now it pulls hard left instead of right

 

[df2x4]

Firestone are 100% garbage. They refused to align my dad's 06 3500 once, stating that the idler and pitman arm needed replacement. They quoted him over $800 to replace them. Took the truck back to our normal mechanic to double check their claims and go figure, everything is in great shape.

I dislike chain shops in general, but Firestone is one of my least liked.

 

[Erik the Awful]

Firestone are 100% garbage.

I'll second that. They've ripped off a few of my coworkers. I know a handful of independent shops around my area, and I recommend to friends based on what's closest to them.

 

[pokey]

I recently replaced the pitman arm,along with some other parts,on my 95 c1500.I was able to use my automotive pitman arm puller to accomplish the job.What you may be running into is the clearance between the pitman arm itself and the steering box.I ran into a situation where there was not enough space to slide the ears of the puller between the arm and the bottom of the steering gear,where the two meet.I would first suggest that you take the new,replacement pitman arm,and see if your puller is wide enough to fit over the splined end of the arm.If it is, then you must address the clearance problem.I was able to pill the pitman arm down slightly with a large gear puller.The three arms of the puller,and the center bolt placed on the shaft that the nut and washer are,was just enough to give the clearance needed.I was then able to use my pitman arm puller to remove the old part.As for putting on the new pitman arm,"KENNY THE WELDER",was right.The shaft comming out of the steering box is splined.Look at the splines,and you'll see an area that is not machined with splines.It is critical that the area that is not splined align with the same area not splined on the replacement pitman arm.Clean the splines,a little grease,install the arm [with the splines aligned] washer and nut,torque to spec.Good luck.

 

[Schurkey]

Clean the splines,a little grease,install the arm [with the splines aligned] washer and nut,torque to spec.

No grease.

The Pitman arm and shaft are tapered. They're to be assembled "clean and dry". Adding lube will make the Pitman arm slide farther up the tapered shaft, given the same torque on the nut.

This over-stretches the hole in the Pitman arm.