So I was able to get the jeep buttoned up enough after the lift / SYE / CV Drivesaft install last night to drive it to go see fireworks. That was the good news. The bad news was that that didn't include enough time to install the drop pitman arm. Wow - the bumpsteer was somewhere between scary and dangerous. Just the front end dropping every time I pushed in the clutch was enough to be bothersome.
So, this morning I decided to finish up and install the drop pitman. Got the old one off with great effort (pitman puller + all my strength on breaker bar + BFH beating the hell out of it). It finally came off. Went to put the new one on and it doesn't seem to want to seat all the way. There was probably 1/4" between the stock pitman and the steering box. During round one's install, there was probably 5/8" gap with the nut tightened. Not loving the way this looked, I pulled it off and cleaned the splines on the steering box with a wire brush, and gave them a squirt of WD40 before I attempted round 2. This time, I was able to get the gap down to maybe 1/2". That's with tightening the nut with all my might using a breaker bar.
So, should I be concerned? Should I pull the drop pitman off and bead blast it's splines to remove any paint / shmutz? Should I ignore the gap and be comfortable with my tightened nut? Should I drive it and periodically check? Give me some guidance here, as I've never wrenched on a vehicle with a steering box vs. a rack and pinion.
The good news is that on the test drive the bump steer was all but gone.
Topic: Drop Pitman Install Question (Read 270 times)
