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Part Details
TRQ suspension kits are manufactured using premium raw materials and coatings for extended service life. Each TRQ suspension component is designed to be a direct, maintenance-free replacement to the stock unit. To extend the life of your steering and suspension components, TRQ recommends replacing components in pairs, sets, or kits. All products are fit and road-tested in our Massachusetts R&D facility to ensure we deliver on our promise of Trusted Reliable Quality.
Product Features
Install Tip: When replacing steering components, have a professional alignment performed afterwards. This ensures proper tracking and even tire wear.
Our steering and suspension components are pre-greased and sealed for long life and do not require the extra maintenance typically required by greaseable versions.
Item Condition:
New
Attention California Customers:
WARNING: This product can expose you to chemicals including Lead and Lead Compounds, which are known to the State of California to cause cancer, and birth defects or other reproductive harm. For more information, go to www.P65Warnings.ca.gov.
Lifetime Warranty
This item is backed by our limited lifetime warranty. In the event that this item should fail due to manufacturing defects during intended use, we will replace the part free of charge. This warranty covers the cost of the part only.
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Brought to you by 1A Auto. com, your source for quality replacement parts and the best source on the Internet.
Hi, I'm Mike Green. I'm one of the owners of 1A Auto. I want to help you save time and money repairing and maintaining your vehicle. I'm going to use my 20 plus experience restoring and repairing cars and trucks like this to show you the correct way to install parts from 1A Auto dot com. The right parts installed correctly. That's going to save you time and money. Thank you and enjoy the video.
In this video, we're going to replace the idler arm on this '96 Tahoe. This is a full drive truck so it's the same as any '98, or '88 to '98 GM truck and '92 to 2000 SUV. Tools you'll need are various millimeter sockets, joint fork and hammer, a tie rod or an idler arm puller, a torque wrench, telescoping magnet and an 18 millimeter wrench.
First, using a 19 millimeter wrench or your tire iron, remove your front. Using a 15 millimeter wrench, remove this front shield. Then, we're zooming in here and this is a 24 millimeter bolt that holds the idler arm on to the steering linkage. We're going to use a joint fork, we're just going to put that right in between the joint where the idler arm and the steering linkage is, zoom out here and then, just use a good-sized hammer and just force that fork right between the joint and separate that joint. The idler arm assembly is held on by three bolts. You can see the backside of them there. You get to them through the frame through access holes right there. You can see my wrench is through one and then the other two are right near them.
We'll speed up going through and removing those three bolts. Note have a telescoping magnet available for when you drop those bolts into the frame as I do a couple of times. What I'm doing here is pulling the idler assembly away from the frame, and at the same time with the other hand, pushing the idler arm up and away from the steering linkage, or actually pulling the steering linkage down. Eventually it comes loose enough and comes right out. This is a 24 millimeter. You want to use this puller and this is a rubber gasket here, pretty much just have to force it into your puller, pull that right off. My new one; right back into place.
The trouble you run into is when you try to put this back together, right back and these two go to the back when you try and put this back together, this is a lock nut and wind up turning the shaft. What I'm doing, I got a big old bolt from another project. I put that on there and what happens this will go in enough and when I hit that other nut, it'll start pressing this on to the shaft. Then, I can use the arm itself to pull the shaft. I put my lock nut back on.
Using a magnet, I took out my other two bolts so I have that top one in. I'm going to use an extension and hold that bolt in place, assembly up in here and hang in on that bolt.
I will put the nut up on that bolt and then basically repeat the step for the two bolts, put them right in to my extension with my socket, feed them through. See the bolt come through, put it on to the assembly and put the nut back on and then same thing with the third one. Feed it through, see the back of my head and then, put the nut on. Before I tighten those up, I'll turn my attention over to the steering gear. Here I pull the steering gear down and on to the joint for the idler arm and then just put the nut on hand tight. Now we'll go back to tightening up those three bolts. You want to use torque wrench and tighten them up to 80-foot pounds. This 22 millimeters and tighten these up to 80-foot pounds as well. Just a little tighter so we can fit that cotter pin through.
We'll put a grease gun in there and make sure we hit that grease footing to get it properly lubed up. Put your shield back on real quick with the four 15-millimeter bolts. Over here, we're just going to put that little pin back into the harness that was holding our airbag sensor there. We'll speed up putting the tire back on. Put on the lug nuts, tighten them a little bit, then lower the car down and torque them to about a hundred twenty to a hundred forty foot-pounds and then put your cap back on.
We hope this helps you out. Brought to you by www.1AAuto.com, your source for quality replacement parts and the best service on the Internet. Please feel free to call us toll free 888-844-3393. We're the company that serves you on the Internet and in person.
Tools used
Tools used
Tools used
Tools used
I'm going to use a 22-millimeter socket to take off the lug nuts so we can remove the wheel, then I remove the wheel. So I'm going to use some pliers at the top of the sway bar link right there, and then underneath, I'm gonna use a 14-millimeter socket and just take the link out. A long bolt goes straight through just like that. And take the top off just like that. Now just take a pry bar underneath here. Just raise up on the sway bar, take the link out, all right. So we'll just take the new link apart, and just leave the washer and the bushing on this long bolt. And take the other bushing and the washer, line that up first.
And then this tube goes next. Slide that bolt through, and then another washer and the bushing. Align this up and slide the bushing and the washer. Pry down on the bar. And then it would help if you had someone to help you out to pry this while you're holding this and getting the nuts started. All right, that's good. And then use a 14-millimeter wrench for the nut and a 14-millimeter socket and tighten this down. And then you want to torque this to 89 inch-pounds. Make sure you're on inch-pounds, not foot-pounds. Now, put the tire back and lug nuts. Now we're gonna torque the lug nuts to 140 foot-pounds in a star pattern or a cross pattern so that it tightens the wheel down evenly. And just go around again. Double Check.
Tools used
Brought to you by 1A Auto. com, your source for quality replacement parts and the best source on the Internet.
Hi, I'm Mike Green. I'm one of the owners of 1A Auto. I want to help you save time and money repairing and maintaining your vehicle. I'm going to use my 20 plus experience restoring and repairing cars and trucks like this to show you the correct way to install parts from 1A Auto dot com. The right parts installed correctly. That's going to save you time and money. Thank you and enjoy the video.
In this video, we're going to replace the idler arm on this '96 Tahoe. This is a full drive truck so it's the same as any '98, or '88 to '98 GM truck and '92 to 2000 SUV. Tools you'll need are various millimeter sockets, joint fork and hammer, a tie rod or an idler arm puller, a torque wrench, telescoping magnet and an 18 millimeter wrench.
First, using a 19 millimeter wrench or your tire iron, remove your front. Using a 15 millimeter wrench, remove this front shield. Then, we're zooming in here and this is a 24 millimeter bolt that holds the idler arm on to the steering linkage. We're going to use a joint fork, we're just going to put that right in between the joint where the idler arm and the steering linkage is, zoom out here and then, just use a good-sized hammer and just force that fork right between the joint and separate that joint. The idler arm assembly is held on by three bolts. You can see the backside of them there. You get to them through the frame through access holes right there. You can see my wrench is through one and then the other two are right near them.
We'll speed up going through and removing those three bolts. Note have a telescoping magnet available for when you drop those bolts into the frame as I do a couple of times. What I'm doing here is pulling the idler assembly away from the frame, and at the same time with the other hand, pushing the idler arm up and away from the steering linkage, or actually pulling the steering linkage down. Eventually it comes loose enough and comes right out. This is a 24 millimeter. You want to use this puller and this is a rubber gasket here, pretty much just have to force it into your puller, pull that right off. My new one; right back into place.
The trouble you run into is when you try to put this back together, right back and these two go to the back when you try and put this back together, this is a lock nut and wind up turning the shaft. What I'm doing, I got a big old bolt from another project. I put that on there and what happens this will go in enough and when I hit that other nut, it'll start pressing this on to the shaft. Then, I can use the arm itself to pull the shaft. I put my lock nut back on.
Using a magnet, I took out my other two bolts so I have that top one in. I'm going to use an extension and hold that bolt in place, assembly up in here and hang in on that bolt.
I will put the nut up on that bolt and then basically repeat the step for the two bolts, put them right in to my extension with my socket, feed them through. See the bolt come through, put it on to the assembly and put the nut back on and then same thing with the third one. Feed it through, see the back of my head and then, put the nut on. Before I tighten those up, I'll turn my attention over to the steering gear. Here I pull the steering gear down and on to the joint for the idler arm and then just put the nut on hand tight. Now we'll go back to tightening up those three bolts. You want to use torque wrench and tighten them up to 80-foot pounds. This 22 millimeters and tighten these up to 80-foot pounds as well. Just a little tighter so we can fit that cotter pin through.
We'll put a grease gun in there and make sure we hit that grease footing to get it properly lubed up. Put your shield back on real quick with the four 15-millimeter bolts. Over here, we're just going to put that little pin back into the harness that was holding our airbag sensor there. We'll speed up putting the tire back on. Put on the lug nuts, tighten them a little bit, then lower the car down and torque them to about a hundred twenty to a hundred forty foot-pounds and then put your cap back on.
We hope this helps you out. Brought to you by www.1AAuto.com, your source for quality replacement parts and the best service on the Internet. Please feel free to call us toll free 888-844-3393. We're the company that serves you on the Internet and in person.
Tools used
Tools used
Tools used
Brought to you by 1AAuto.com, your source for quality replacement parts, and the best service on the Internet.
This is part two of doing the Pitman Arm on this '96 Tahoe, which is the same as any '88 -'98 GM truck, or '92 - '99 SUV with four-wheel drive. Again, a little refresher on the tools that you'll need.
Believe it or not, I actually forgot to film... or, I actually messed up and I didn't film pulling the Pitman Arm off, so I'm just going to show you how to use the Pitman Arm puller and the tool on - this is actually the idler arm. This is the same idea, you would just be doing it on the steering box. You put the tool on like that, and then put your wrench on there and pull it, and that breaks it right free. Once we've used the puller, we can take the old arm off and put the new one on. There are four marks, or four larger teeth that make sure that you put the arm on in the right position. The best thing is just take the old one right off and then put the new one right back on in the same position. That way, you know that you have it centered correctly.
We'll put the big lock washer back on... actually, what we might want to do is put the nut on first, tighten it a little bit, which presses the arm on, and then take it off of the lock washer. Then, right up in here you can see, here's our steering coupler. The bolt is to the frame side, and it's basically straight up and down, so you want to have your steering box ready to go the same way. So, it's ready to go up in there. This flat spot here is what aligns with that bolt, so then, basically, take your box and put it in there. Now we've got our steering box up in there. Now take a bolt, feed it through, and you can see it come out on this side. Try and position the steering box so the bolt will go in, and then once you've got the bolt started, just reach up on top of the steering box, make sure your hoses are free - they're not pinched in between the frame and the box. Wrap the third one here.
Here's that Pitman Arm, and here's where it hooks into our steering, and while we still have the box loose a little bit, just move that all into place, and then just start this nut on there for right now. Before you actually tighten up the steering box to the frame, you'll want to connect your linkage here. You can see right down there is the end of the steering box, and this, I have this rubber boot pulled back. This telescopes back and forth, and what you want to do is, you can see there's a flat spot here on the gear, and then there's also a flat spot in your coupler, which I have right at the top now, so you basically want to push your shaft down on there and lid on. Then, put the bolt in, and you want to tighten this bolt up to about 35- 40 foot-pounds. Okay, we've reconnected and tightened both the power steering hoses, and they are different-sized fittings, so you shouldn't have any problem.
I'm going to torque these bolts to 120 foot-pounds. I'm going to torque this nut to 80 foot-pounds. I'm going to put in our new Pitman Arm came with a cotter pin and lock it, and it looks like I need to tighten it another quarter turn. I push the cotter pin through and pull it down around to lock it. Obviously, you're going to want to put your wheel back on, and when it's down on the ground, you're going to want to torque those lug nuts to 120 - 140 foot-pounds. Now, here I am adding some power steering fluid and, basically, you want to fill it to the level it's supposed to be, turn the car on, turn the steering wheel back and forth a few times, and then refill it until it's at the right levels. Then the last step is some grease on this fitting, and it should be all set.
We hope this helps you out. Brought to you by www.1AAuto.com, your source for quality replacement parts, and the best service on the Internet. Please feel free to call us toll free: 888-844-3393. We're the company that's here for you on the Internet, and in person.
Tools used
Tools used
Tools used
Brought to you by 1AAuto.com, your source for quality replacement parts, and the best service on the Internet.
This is part two of doing the Pitman Arm on this '96 Tahoe, which is the same as any '88 -'98 GM truck, or '92 - '99 SUV with four-wheel drive. Again, a little refresher on the tools that you'll need.
Believe it or not, I actually forgot to film... or, I actually messed up and I didn't film pulling the Pitman Arm off, so I'm just going to show you how to use the Pitman Arm puller and the tool on - this is actually the idler arm. This is the same idea, you would just be doing it on the steering box. You put the tool on like that, and then put your wrench on there and pull it, and that breaks it right free. Once we've used the puller, we can take the old arm off and put the new one on. There are four marks, or four larger teeth that make sure that you put the arm on in the right position. The best thing is just take the old one right off and then put the new one right back on in the same position. That way, you know that you have it centered correctly.
We'll put the big lock washer back on... actually, what we might want to do is put the nut on first, tighten it a little bit, which presses the arm on, and then take it off of the lock washer. Then, right up in here you can see, here's our steering coupler. The bolt is to the frame side, and it's basically straight up and down, so you want to have your steering box ready to go the same way. So, it's ready to go up in there. This flat spot here is what aligns with that bolt, so then, basically, take your box and put it in there. Now we've got our steering box up in there. Now take a bolt, feed it through, and you can see it come out on this side. Try and position the steering box so the bolt will go in, and then once you've got the bolt started, just reach up on top of the steering box, make sure your hoses are free - they're not pinched in between the frame and the box. Wrap the third one here.
Here's that Pitman Arm, and here's where it hooks into our steering, and while we still have the box loose a little bit, just move that all into place, and then just start this nut on there for right now. Before you actually tighten up the steering box to the frame, you'll want to connect your linkage here. You can see right down there is the end of the steering box, and this, I have this rubber boot pulled back. This telescopes back and forth, and what you want to do is, you can see there's a flat spot here on the gear, and then there's also a flat spot in your coupler, which I have right at the top now, so you basically want to push your shaft down on there and lid on. Then, put the bolt in, and you want to tighten this bolt up to about 35- 40 foot-pounds. Okay, we've reconnected and tightened both the power steering hoses, and they are different-sized fittings, so you shouldn't have any problem.
I'm going to torque these bolts to 120 foot-pounds. I'm going to torque this nut to 80 foot-pounds. I'm going to put in our new Pitman Arm came with a cotter pin and lock it, and it looks like I need to tighten it another quarter turn. I push the cotter pin through and pull it down around to lock it. Obviously, you're going to want to put your wheel back on, and when it's down on the ground, you're going to want to torque those lug nuts to 120 - 140 foot-pounds. Now, here I am adding some power steering fluid and, basically, you want to fill it to the level it's supposed to be, turn the car on, turn the steering wheel back and forth a few times, and then refill it until it's at the right levels. Then the last step is some grease on this fitting, and it should be all set.
We hope this helps you out. Brought to you by www.1AAuto.com, your source for quality replacement parts, and the best service on the Internet. Please feel free to call us toll free: 888-844-3393. We're the company that's here for you on the Internet, and in person.
Tools used
Tools used
Safely raise and support your vehicle on the frame so your suspension can hang. Now that we've safely raised the vehicle, let's remove this by using a small pry bar right in this little slot. Now you can see your 22-millimeter lug nuts, remove those. And now we'll just do the same thing to the other side. It's a great idea to spray down the area. We're going to let that sit. Obviously, if your tie rod ends look like this around the adjustment area, you're going to want to do the whole thing. If for some reason you aren't, you're going to remove these two bolts and then you'll turn this out and that will break this free.
So now that I know that I am replacing the assembly as a whole, I'm going to turn the wheel all the way to the left. That's going to give me the most area to get to that inner tie rod and stud. To start, I'm going to use my 18-millimeter half-inch drive, come right up here on the outer tie rod end nut, if you need to give it a couple of bonks, make sure you get it on there. Let's loosen this up. I'm just going to take that nut and put it back on there, just a few threads to keep myself safe.
So now we're going to break the outer tie rod end free from the knuckle right here, you can use a large hammer. You could also use a pickle fork with a hammer. If you're going to go with the hammer method, just go right here on the knuckle, it should want to break free. Make sure you have the nut on there and your safety glasses. All right, that broke free, awesome. Let's remove that inner tie right end nut. For this part right here, we're going to use one of these pickle forks. Come right in through in between the inner tie rod end and this right here, going to hammer it in. Start that on just a couple threads here. Okay, that's separated. Let's start the removal process here. Now we can move along to the next step.
So one of the first things we need to do when we get to the bench is, of course, we'll put a little bit of copper Never-Seez on our threaded area, you can go right on the tie rod ends, and maybe inside the sleeve if you wanted to. Once you have done that and you have those prepped, we're going to take a measuring tape and we're going to measure from one end of this all the way to the other end. Take a quick measurement here, and take note, looks like for me it is 16 and seven-eighths. So, what I am going to do now is I'm going to get this started onto both these tie rod ends at the same time, that is called timing the tie rod ends. We'll screw it in, and then we'll keep measuring until we get to 16 and seven-eighths, which is my measurement.
Start this on, just a couple of threads here, okay. Now I am going to do the same thing for this one, just grabbing the first thread is the hardest part usually. Now that I have both those started, I'm going to try to screw this on. Okay. So that looks pretty decent. At this point, what I want to do is make sure that I have the inner tie rod end lined up with the new inner tie rod end. That looks good, and I am going to make sure that this is aiming up in the same direction as the other one. Just like that.
And the next thing that we want to do is get these bolts so they are lined up just like that. So you can see where the open area is, that is exactly where you want the bolt to be when you crimp this down. That's how it is going to hold the threads the best. Just snug this up, and we're not going to completely tighten this up yet because, of course, we're still going to have to give it a little twist when we get in the vehicle. I just want to kind of make it so it can't flop around on me. That's pretty decent. Just snug, time to get that started in there, it's important to pay attention to your inner tie rod end which has this little blank area of the shanked end, then you have the outer tie rod end that has the threaded area pretty much the whole way. Started. Start in the outer as well, let's go ahead and bottom these out. Let's torque both these nuts to 40 foot-pounds.
So now you are going to look for your cotter pin hole. And that should be a hole that goes through the stud. It needs to line up with the castle nut here. I'm going to take one of my cotter pins and just feel around, that feels like it is almost about to go through. Something that's important to remember is if the cotter pin does not go through, or it is not lined up, you don't want to loosen it so you can put the cotter pin through. You just want to tighten to the point that you can get the cotter pin locked in. Do the same to the other one, that one I can see that it is not lined up. Just going to give it a teeny bit more. Put the cotter pin through, of course, lock it down.
The next thing you want to do is make sure that your tie rods are straight so when you're looking at 'em, you want the stud to look like it's coming straight out. If it isn't, just go ahead and give it a little twist, and then double-check the other side to make sure that that one is good. If for some reason when you have one straight and the other one is turned completely like that, that's going to cause premature wear of the tie rod ends. Make sure they are both straight, and then you can torque these down to 14 foot-pounds. We're just going to double-check the tie rods now that those are snug. That looks straight, this looks straight, perfect. Let's get the wheel on, and get it to the alignment shop.
Time to get the wheel up on here. Start on one of those lug nuts. Now we're just going to start on all the lug nuts, we'll bottom them out and then we'll torque them to 120 foot-pounds. Torque these to 120 foot-pounds. That's torqued. We'll get our cover on here, awesome. And now we'll just do the same thing to the other side. The next thing you would want to do is go ahead and get yourself an alignment.
Tools used
Tools used
Tools used
Safely raise and support your vehicle on the frame so your suspension can hang. Now that we've safely raised the vehicle, let's remove this by using a small pry bar right in this little slot.
Now you can see your 22-millimeter lug nuts; remove those.
And now we'll just do the same thing to the other side. Let's get this little plastic cover out of here. To get out the sway bar links, more than likely, you're gonna have to drop your sway bar. To do that, I would spray right inside this hole right here, try to spray the top area of that bolt, and then from the other side, spray this side as well. While you're at it, why don't you do the other side of the vehicle at the same time?
To get this one out, obviously, it's going to be a little bit difficult. You have minimal room here. Go and try to use some sort of pivoting extension or whatever you might have to get up in there. You could also use a 10-millimeter wrench if you have all day.
Let's do the same to the other side. I'm just gonna use a swivel socket to come through this hole. I want to try to find the bolt under there. I'm gonna hold that and then I'm gonna remove the nut on the top.
Okay, so that one broke. So now we're just gonna get the bar off of here. We can move this, try to get this separated real quick.
So now we have the sheath. This is a metal sheath that goes over this metal part of the bolt. Odds are that's gonna be completely rotted together. The best thing to do here would be to cut it. If you were to look right down along here, you can see exactly what I'm talking about. They left plenty of room for moisture to get in there. Let's carefully heat up the area. You obviously want to be careful for any rubber such as your axle boot, or even your ABS wire.
Now we have that nice and warm, let's go ahead and hit it was some penetrant spray. Let's clear the area, let that dissipate for a minute.
Let's get the rest of this off of there.
It doesn't look like the bushing wants to be coming out at the same time here. Get this out here, get that out of there.
Now when you're replacing the sway bar links or just the bushings, you want to obviously do those as a pair and when they're apart is the best time to do it. So now when we're getting ready to put this on, it's important to make sure you have the smaller bushing on the bottom side, that's going to make it much easier to get up through the hole in the bottom of the control arm.
Get that and the bushing right up in there. Now we're gonna go with the other bushing that has the washer on it like that. Slide it down, get your shank, slide that on there, you've got your other washer, a little thing on there. Slide that like that. This is gonna go through the bar. Now we'll grab our bushing with the washer, slide that right on there and get our locking nut, make sure you put that on as well, obviously.
Now we're gonna do the same to the other side and then we'll jump into putting back on the bushings. Now we're gonna take our 13-millimeter wrench, come through the bottom of that control arm right through the hole and try to hold the bolt. And we'll come up here with our socket and we're gonna snug this up and pay attention to the bushings for how much they try to squish down.
I'm just going to analyze these bushings real quick. What you want to look for is to make sure that they're actually touching up against the bar. They have no room for movement, and you also want to make sure that they're not necessarily squished down like a pancake. If you've done that, you're probably going to damage the bushing. All you want it to be is enough so it touches here, here, here, and then if you could see in there, of course it's touching as well. We'll do the same to the other side. Let's start all of our bolts in here that hold the sway bar bushings in.
We're gonna snug these right up. All right, make sure those are nice and tight and then do the same to the other side of the vehicle.
Time to get the wheel up on here. Start on one of those lug nuts. Now we're just gonna start on all the lug nuts. We'll bottom them out, and then we'll torque them to 120 foot-pounds.Torque these to 120 foot-pounds. It's torqued. We'll get our cover on here. Awesome. And now we'll just do the same thing to the other side.
Tools used
Tools used
Tools used
Tools used
Brought to you by 1AAuto.com, your source for quality replacement parts and the best service on the internet.
Hi, I'm Mike Green. I'm one of the owners of 1A Auto. I want to help you save time and money repairing or maintaining your vehicle. I'm going to use my 20-plus years' experience restoring and repairing cars and trucks like this to show you the correct way to install parts from 1AAuto.com. The right parts installed correctly. That's going to save you time and money. Thank you and enjoy the video.
In this video we're going to install a new Pitman arm on this 1996 Tahoe. It is the same as any 1988 to 1998 Chevy truck. This is a four-wheel drive vehicle. So four wheel drive trucks and also 1992 to 1999 SUVs, four-wheel drives.
You will need the following tools: penetrating oil, a whole host of mm sockets, 18-mm fitting wrench, joint fork and hammer Pitman arm puller and actually not listed here was a 19-mm socket and ratchet or your tire iron to remove your tire. You'll also need a jack and jack stand or lift.
To check and see if you have a bad Pitman arm you can see where this front driver's side tire we're going up and under. Here's your transfer to here and then up right there is the joint of your Pitman arm. This here is your Pitman arm and then this is your steering linkage. Again, here is your Pitman arm. Here's your steering linkage. Now when you move your tires, I'm just grabbing hold of the tires and kind of turning them back and forth when the car is above the ground and you can see there is a lot of play and movement going on around that Pitman arm. That joint is bad.
First, you'll want to remove this skid plate which is four 15-mm bolts. You can see two easy here, and there's one up here and one you cannot really see, but over here. Now we're going to remove the steering box to get to the Pitman arm. Okay. So, this is the driver's side of the engine compartment. There's the power break booster and this right down here is your steering box. It's a little difficult to see. It's where you can see these tubes going in. There is a plastic shield here. It kind of clips around. Now you can see this was clipped up and around here. You just kind of peel that off and pull this plastic shield back and now you're going to want to use some penetrating oil and douse both your fittings, one here and then one a little further up. It's kind of difficult to see.
There are two fittings to douse with penetrating oil and then there's also a bolt. You might be able to barely see there and then you also want to loosen this bolt here and that loosens the coupler from the steering box shaft. The best tool for removing those power steering fittings is a fitting wrench like this, 18 mm. See it down on there? I got it on there and then once you loosen it with a fitting wrench you can usually get an open-end wrench on there to help you navigate it the rest of the way.
Then, make sure you have a catch pan underneath to catch the fluid as it starts leaking out. Now we're going to use an 11-mm socket and ratchet and extension to loosen that bolt. Down in there put the socket and ratchet on there. At this point it might be good to have someone help you just hold the steering wheel so it keeps that from turning at all. Once you remove the bolt then you want to take a large screwdriver or a pry bar and put it down in there and just make sure that you can move the steering shaft away from the steering box and if you watch you can see that the shaft is moving from the steering box pretty easily. When I actually unbolt the steering box I'll be able to pull it right out.
No from underneath here's the front of our transfer case on this four-wheel drive truck and this is our Pitman arm joint right here. So, it's a 21-mm bolt. I'll use an impact wrench. As you can see we removed the tire over here and this is a joint fork. So, we're going to bring it in from the side here and then use a good hammer. Basically we just removed the tire so we can get a good wrap on this fork. Okay. You see that fork just separates that joint. Now we get to the three bolts that hold your steering box on and I just used a little screwdriver kind of bend this fender up a little bit because it was in the way and you can just tap it back down with a hammer when you're done. Then you can easily get a socket and extension on there, and just to show you it can be done with hand tools, again, 21-mm. I'll just do the rest of it with an impact wrench just to be quicker.
Hold on to the box with one hand. If not it's just going to fall out. Move it up and out of the steering gear and pull it forward from the shaft. Here's the bottom of it. Put the steering box here, upside down, once again just so any more fluids just drain out into the pan. Here's where having an impact wrench is going to be really valuable. Then this socket is a 34 mm. If you don't have an impact you can just turn it on all the way and then use a large bar. You may want someone to help hold it. You could bolt your steering box onto a longer piece of wood which would help you to keep it steady, but having an impact wrench is the best way. Now, you're going to want to use your Pitman arm puller. This is really the only way to do this.
Believe it or not I actually forgot to film, or I messed up and I didn't film pulling the Pitman arm off so I'm just going to show you how to use the Pitman arm puller and the tool on to the idler arm. It's the same idea. You would just be doing it on the steering box. Put the tool on like that and then put your wrench on there and then pull and it breaks it right free. Okay, and this ends part one of this video. If you want to see, obviously, reinstalling the Pitman arm go please to
part two.
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