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Easiest way to pull a steering ARM

When you say "steering arm", are you talking about a Pitman Arm or a Drag Link?
 
Or the arm that's held on with 3 nuts. Put your purse down and hit it with a BFH! ;)
 
Or the arm that's held on with 3 nuts. Put your purse down and hit it with a BFH!
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Oh yea, the steering arm connected to the steering knuckle. Yep, you will definitly have to drop the make-up kit, and hit it with a BFH. hit it on the the sides.
 
I undo the nuts and let the kingpin spring push my steering arm off:D . Also upgrading to a Dana 60 is an easy way to change a 10 bolt steering arm out.


Other than that like what said before......Hit that bitch like it owes you money:D

Ira
 
Yeah, with an old steering arm it can take some real beating with a hammer. When I first looked at it, I thought there were lock washers or something under those nuts while they are infact slotted tapered sleeves (the best way I can describe them) that hold the steering arm tightly to the studs. Look at the pic I posted and you will see how the sleeves fit in the tapered holes in the steering arm. You have to beat the steering arm until you see those sleeves start to get loose and then it's best to pull those out as soon as they are loose enough. Once those are off, the steering arm should slide right off those studs.

-Wes

IMG_0391edit.jpg
 
On top of the stock arm, toward the steering box, there should be a string of numbers casted in the metal. Take a BFH and hit it on those numbers. Seems to be a sweet spot for getting the arms to come off.
 
Just make sure that you don't take the nuts off all the way. That way, when you accidentally nail the studs (threads) with the BFH, you can clean up the threads by removing the nuts.
 
air hammer/air chisel - hammer the arm then chisel the split in the cone washers to get 'em to spin then go back to the hammer.
 
I haven't had a steering arm take me more than 5 minutes to remove. Get the BFH and hit that bitch from the sides then remove the tapered cone washers once they become loose and remove arm. DO NOT hit the steering up upward since all you will be doing is tightening the tapered cone washers making it even harder to remove.
 
4X4HIGH said:
I haven't had a steering arm take me more than 5 minutes to remove.
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You obviously don't live out here in the Rust Belt. :rolleyes:

Last one I did, I needed an oxy/acetylene torch just to get the nuts off.
 
10 minutes on the 31 year old original arm on my K5. No heat, just plenty of penetrating oil a couple of days before and during and then a BFH hitting DOWN as directed in earlier posts. And even though my truck has always been in DRY Colorado, it must have sat in mud up to its rockers cause its more rusty that any other Colorado truck should be. (steering arm too!)

Now if you keep hitting up, you will be there all day. No matter how much heat you apply. My old Nieghbor in Michigan spent a day and a half on a 91 K5 to pull the arm off of it. (didn't have my K5 then and didn't know the trick) But it sure was fun to watch them pound on that poor arm, swear at it and almost set the truck on fire with the torch....
 
I just had to do the same thing yesterday and nothing I did made a difference until I got a chisel and pressed it at the side of the sleeves and hit it with a hammer. That kinda pried the sleeves up and loose, along with some liquid wrench. :) The hammer by itself didn't do a thing. 35 years of rust makes this stuff pretty difficult.
 
I sprayed mine with WD40 a day or so before then bought an 8 pound sledge(Best 17 bux I ever Spent:D ). Tapped it on the side a few times then hit it good on the U part. Only took a couple few hits and she came right off.
 
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