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Steering Arm

scottystills

scottystills

1/2 ton status
Joined
Jun 7, 2009
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Location
Calgary, AB
So this afternoon we were headed out to hit some trails, problem hit when buddy's truck wouldn't start; turned out his batteries had frozen so hopped into the K5 to Costco to grab a couple new ones. He runs in, comes back, and as I go to pull away I turn (to not hit a garbage can) and SNAP. There goes my steering arm. With my lift, had to call the local 4x4 shop and luckily they had one in, so I sent another buddy to go grab it and set to work pulling off the smashed one. The piece attached to the ball joint came off fairly easily. Now the problem I'm having is that the small chunk attached with 3 bolts onto the knuckle will NOT move. At all. For anything. Long story short the trails were quiet today...

So having not had to pull this before, looked it up after having the truck towed to my house, and it looks like there are conical inserts that go over each of the 3 bolts to keep the arm on if you were to lose the nuts. Here's my question, any pointers on how the H377 to get this thing off?

My plan of attack for morning involves a propane torch and my trusty 8lb sledge, but I'd love to hear if somebody knows a more elegant way.

Thanks!



1988 K5 Blazer
6.2L Diesel
Banks Sidewinder
4" Rough Country Lift
33x12.5x15 Dick Cepek's
 
take nuts off.

beat arm with hammer for a while.

watch a cone pop up, grab it with plyers and pull it out

beat arm with hammer

watch cone pop up, grab with plyers and pull out

beat arm with hammer

take last cone off.



Hammer time can range from a couple minutes to 20 or 30 lol
 
Actually that reminds me. All the "official" lit on this tells me that I have to replace the nuts that came off the knuckle on reassembly. Is that necessary? If it is, why?
 
BFH is the trick BUT DO NOT hit upwards (might not be able to anyways depending on where the arm broke) on the arm as that just makes the conical cones grab the arm even harder. I've soaked them with penetrating oil and then went to town with the BFH and have had them off usually within 2 minutes but i've also whaled on some for several hours. Heat won't help you at all so I wouldn't even bother with that and besides the heat can destroy the ball joint.
 
I did all those tricks yesterday and mine didnt budge and I never hit upward. I soaked them down, beat on it...nothing...soacked them down....beat on it again nothing...did that 3 times and gave up.

good luck getting yours off
 
4X4HIGH said:
BFH is the trick BUT DO NOT hit upwards (might not be able to anyways depending on where the arm broke) on the arm as that just makes the conical cones grab the arm even harder. I've soaked them with penetrating oil and then went to town with the BFH and have had them off usually within 2 minutes but i've also whaled on some for several hours. Heat won't help you at all so I wouldn't even bother with that and besides the heat can destroy the ball joint.
Click to expand...
Do exactly as Scott quoted here.

Never hit the arm upwards or downwards. Always hit it on the side of the arm where the casting marks are. And never use a torch to heat anything either unless you plan on changing the ball joints.
 
Not connected to the ball joints anymore. It broke basically right beside the knuckle. That's the worst part here is there's not much even to bang on, it's just the chunk sitting over the three bolts on the knuckle. Apparently there's a groove in the top of the washer that you can put a screwdriver in and hammer, get them to turn and they pop out easier. I'll give that a shot too.

Well, going out in the -15 to see what I can do about this thing. Thanks for the help!
 
Wow, 45 minutes of smashing that thing with the sledge is taking it out of me. Not budging at all!

I did notice the expansion slit on the sleeves though, would it be worthwhile to try to get some vice grips or something around it and try to collapse it to pull it out?
 
You can use VG's to grip the cones slightly in order to try and rotate them and pull up at the same time but don't grip them so tight as to clamp the cone to the stud. It needs to be loose to remove. Thats why they have the slots down the cones.

Keep at it with the hammer. It'll come loose.
 
Man this thing still won't budge. Soaked it in PB Blaster, torched it, hammered the hell out of it, nothing. I've got a buddy coming by with a compressor and an impact chisel tomorrow. We'll get this thing one way or another!
 
Impact chisel will just destroy the conical washers, and they are about 120 bucks new from GM...

Just get a bigger hammer my friend! It'll come off, just needs more convincing!

I once had to take a full fledged sledge hammer to one for a good couple hours before I got it off.
 
Oh I'm not going to hit the washers, I'm just going to pound it on the broken side of the steering arm hoping the vibration will knock the washers out...

DAMN this thing! I already missed a great day for trails, now I'm wasting valuable time that I need to put on my coolant heater so I can get to the trails next time lol!
 
Yeah, they are much easier to get a good solid swing at when the axle is out of the truck. But that said, just keep wailing on it, she'll come off!

Where you headed to down there this time of year? Bragg Creek, McLean?
 
You know I was going to head to Mclean on Saturday, but I just found out they decided that it's not open in the winter anymore. No idea why. If they're worried about people tearing up the ground, well, it's frozen right now. Besides there are hundreds of guys that run the trails every summer, not sure why winter is a problem.

We were headed up to Waiprous though. They keep about 75% of the trails open during the winter. I'm still not sure why they close down any though.
 
I thought they shut down almost all of that area? I wish I'd gotten the chance to wheel down there before they shut everything down... We usually head out to the Cadomin or Prairie Creek areas from Edmonton. Occasionally stop in at Vega for a winter run or two though.
 
APPARENTLY most of it's open. They still run a lot of sleds and quads out there but from what I hear a lot of the truck trails are still open. I'm not sure why Mclean's shut down this year. I've got some buddies that went around the gates, but probably not the best chance to take, and it only makes it worse trying to get them to reopen next year.

No idea why everybody's shutting down during the winter. You can't build ALL winter!
 
scottystills said:
Man this thing still won't budge. Soaked it in PB Blaster, torched it, hammered the hell out of it, nothing. I've got a buddy coming by with a compressor and an impact chisel tomorrow. We'll get this thing one way or another!
Click to expand...

Mine was a pain also. After two days of beating the arm with a hammer I gave up. I borrowed a cam driven stud remover. Removed the studs in five minutes. ORD shipped me new studs and conical washers and I don't remember paying a whole lot for them either. Good luck.
 
Like this...
studremover.jpg
 
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