Well my box came in took maybe 3 days i finally got around to looking at it.

Went and got a pitman arm puller tool from the auto parts store.

The tool they rent you will work but depends on where u go i dont know for sure but the one my store rented was fairly cheap prolly the 10$ bargain puller.

With that being said the end u wrench is rounded so you cannot get any type of air tool on it so if yours happends to be just about wielded on and you wish to try that for impact forget it.

So anyway i soaked everything with some wd specialist real nice.

Do not know of anyones claims of which snake oil is better but i like ease and flow of the wd stuff the pb blaster doesnt appear to even have a straw so thats just my 2 cents

i just did the pitman arm bolt mostly picked up the tool from store the next day came out and sized the arm nut.

Most average joe people do not have the right size tool for this job so you will be scratching your head thinking you have to goto stores and chase down a big 34mm socket or wrench and spend a few 20 dollar bills for one wrench you might only use once in a lifetime however as long as you have presoaked the nut good you should be able to get a pipe wrench on there like i did and get the nut loose without stripping the nut.

I did not really have to drop anything to get at the box no center link or track bar some people will mention all of that which is unnecessary.

The only thing that should be in your way from getting the arm off is the sway bar just undo the 4 bolts there 2 on each side obviously if your stuff is really old and maybe rusted a bit you would wanna soak them before trying it you will need a 15mm

Now keep in mind i soaked the arm heavy with oil and did this twice over the coarse of 2 days before trying to pull it.

My dad insisted it would come right off no problem he would get off easy so we put the tool on it had to use a wrench on the tool.

Some people will want to use air tools fancy impact and such you really do not need it if you know what you are doing.

Several people cut and hack up the old arm you do not need to do all of that if you know what your doing.

One guy in a youtube video you watch the guy and he tried a pickle fork hit it a couple times with a hammer and said oh thats not gonna work and then tryed the tool he says ahh trusty air tool like its the cure all for car repair cranks up the compressor and away he goes for about a minute till the tool almost snaps in half on one side i could not believe it he even stops at one point and says its not moving then finally says im gonna have to cut it then continues tooling away when one of the arms almost snaps.

Then the guy gets out his grinder makes a relief cut hits it with a hammer puts the tool back on tightens it starts hitting it with a hammer again then some how it comes off couldent believe it.

Anyways i used a wrench got the pitman tool i had tight did not seem like the arm was moving so i hit it with a hammer just a bit still nothing so i tightend the tool up some more got a pipe and used it for leverage my wrench eventually snapped got out another 15 and tryed to turn it again somemore nothing then hit it with the hammer nothing so then we did the obvious thing and got some heat hit it with a plumbing torch for a min it eventually appeared to move on its own a tiny bit tryed to tighen the tool a bit more and it felt loose a bit did it some more was unsure if it moved anymore hit it with the hammer a couple times tool felt loose again tighened it some more it moved then popped off took about 10-15 minutes all and all would have came off even faster if we hit it with heat right away.

No cuts no grinds no heavy hammer marks but the tool almost stripped but no major damage no bent arms.

After that we took off the steering rod i went under the hood and removed the air box first to get at it put a 10mm on the steering bolt disconnected it rod was rusted heavy and would not move so im not gonna try and adjust it im gonna leave it alone.

Then went under the car and tryed to get the rubbermatting off from the under carriage obviously the bolts and screws holding it were frozen. I ended up getting most of it out of the way without wrecking it so i could see and get at the box bolts to oil them down

Went for the steering lines next and they were rusted at the fittings and you just could not save them fluid leaked out into the pan as expected came out today and tryed to get them off again with no luck just broke the high pressure off the old box then went under neath and tryed for the steering box bolts.

There is one thin bracket that will be in the way from getting a bar in there its like a 10mm just take the one bolt out and bend the bracket out of the way just a hair and you will get a good ratchet in there.

I oiled the 3 bolts well the day before and the top bolt and the right bolt moved the lower left bolt was frozen you could tell when i first touched it so i loosened the 2 free bolts and took one almost out and then put it back in to make sure it would come out went back to that one bolt and felt it move somewhat but it was more like once before so i just ended up taking the 2 bolts almost out then getting on the 3rd one again till it just snapped.

Got out the pry bar for the steering rod under the hood then it came loose you wanna watch out for other hoses not to be in the way so they dont get ripped out too as the box is fairly heavy you might wanna have 2 people on it one from the top.

Checked the old box and the 3rd bolt was now stuck onto the box and bracket got 2 ends of the bracket to move but it just broke off at the 3rd bolt
and when i looked inside the bolt was corroded and rusted frozen the threads were even corroded away on the spacer bracket plus it appeared already cracked before i took the box off so ill be getting a new one of those.

The dealer lists a oem part for 9$ but called jeep and they said it is no longer available the guy could not get it the listing was from 2014 go figure so it looks like i will end up spending 30$ on a aftermarket looking one which should be beefer

Also i feel i should mention the return line for the power steering is listed around 25-30$ what most people do not know or know one tells them is that u can get a return line kit for 3$ and a piece of hose for 1$ a foot so for about 9$ your good to go can make one yourself

 

Breaking up your long thoughts is not a substitute for punctuation haha. I had to reread most of the time to understand. But from what I did gather, it seems you solved your issue and that's good to hear. Oh, and you would love a nice electric impact just saying

 

i kinda feel proud that im a younger guy and with alil help i was able to take care of this big problem which a local shop would charge 500$ for and claim they had to do more then you need

I saved money if you think about car is over 25 years old and i did not have to go out and buy a new pitman arm and i got it off faster then the guy with the mid 90s or 2000 whatever it was and i live in a place where they use plenty of salt in the winter.

I thought about getting one of those 24v impact drills for myself but in this case i did not need that the only major thing i used other then the wrench was the small torch i did not have anything fancy to get it off i could have done all of those things others have done cutting beating grinding taking off center links most are unnecessary and take extra time.

cant wait to feel safe again then off to the next repair hope someone get something useful from my weird mixed up bunch of words

 

All in all twas a worthwhile read. Thanks for posting it up.

Tim

 

Thanks man I have found this place to be a great forum over the years a lot of good info.

I feel I should mention also that depends on who your dealing with because there are a lot of people who are stupid in some ways yet are still employed so keep in mind when u are looking for certain parts for cars you might not realize that you can make something else yourself or use something else that will work the same and cost less and get you back on the road right away.

You could look online for a part and it could say they have it in town and they donot you might also find that it might appear they donot have your part online but one could be sitting on the shelf.

Also like in the case with my power steering lines being rusted some places sell a kit for return lines and such depends on where you go some people who work at these places are stupid and will not tell you about that.

So you will say you are looking for a return line and if you don't know yourself or get the wrong worker they will try and sell you an exact part which in my case was around 30$ and id have to wait a few days.

luckly i mentioned a return line kit and a women said we might have one but remembered someone buying the last one the other day and had said they could not get any more but then out of a stroke of luck the lady says oh well I think we have one other kit that's alil different and we looked at it and it would work the same.

Some people would not tell you that info or mention similar parts so I think its good to share stuff like this.

Also when calling the local dealer you talk to the parts guy and he says he cant get the part I need no more and does not even seem to know which year of Cherokees had the same parts he could not tell me if a 1985 jeep had the same part as the 1999 and so on so even the dealer might not know everything or care to help

 

I figured i should mention when installing the new box you will want to put one old bolt or something in the extra hole in the box spacer to kinda help hold it in place while you put the box on.

Now with the steering rod you might have a problem with it being frozen rusted and having it not want to move.

Which really is no problem most people can get away without taking it off.

All you really have to do is mark the old box position so you have some sort of idea how to line everything up.

Most companys will often have a mark on the new box so you can line everything up correctly.

All you have to do is make sure no one played with your new box gears and moved them around or you will have to line the gears back up before trying to install the new box or you will have a rough time.

The steering arm can really only go on one way so you cant mess it up you will want to line up the flat part of the gear on the box so when you try to get the steering arm back on you are not banging your head for 20 mins.

As long as the box is lined up all you have to do is make sure your wheels are straight move the wheel till you find the sweet spot and get another person to help you and tip the front of the steering box up and kinda push forward torwards the dash and slightly move it back and forth while someone under the hood trys to slip on the steering rod and it should pop right on.

However if you are not careful and the rod goes more then 3 turns either way you could end up damaging the clock spring and that is what controls your cruise control and tilt wheel turn signals ect you do not wanna break that so be careful when trying to get the rod on once you got the rod on carefully try to get the box in place and put a bolt in it.

Once you get one bolt in get one ready with loctite i would use the blue stuff and put it in get it to about 35lbs which is half torque then take the first bolt out and do the same and loctite all 3 bolts should be at half torque now then give them all their final torque of 70.

Now for the pitman arm bolt u will need a really big socket my nut is between 32-36 mm once u find the right one you will want to torque the nut down to 185 lbs.

One thing to note make sure you put all your rubber matting back in that is what helps keep water and dirt and salt from getting all over the undercarrige

You will also want to flush the pump once the box is fully in you can do this