The power steering seal has gone bad So I am trying to pull the pitman arm off of my 1989 f150 and I cant seem to get the puller to fit. Its just too small, somehow. I got the one that is for full size trucks, there weren't any bigger ones. But for some reason I cant get the arms from the puller around the pitman arm. The puller is a U shape with a big bolt that goes through the middle. My truck has all of the towing upgrades available, so could that cause the steering box's output shaft to be wider?
Does anybody have any tricks to removing the pitman arm without the puller, and without damaging the arm.
The whole front of the trucks body isnt on it right now, so I have very easy access to all of the steering stuff.

 

Update: I just checked the puller by seeing if it fits our '90 f150, and it fit on just fine. I also noticed that the pitman arm itself if thicker and wider on my '89.

 

Do not try removing the arm w/o the proper tool, you will trash the gearbox. Your difficulty must have something to do with the towing options. I didn't have any problems using a p/a puller on my 87 F150 but I didn't have towing options either. I never had any long term luck replacing that seal. I eventually replaced the whole gearbox. That was 15 years ago.

 

2 sledgehammers. Hit both sides of the pitman arm at the same time. Sometimes that will pop it.

 

I highly recommend buying a reman box; I've found Advance & ACDelco remans to be good, and of course I'd trust MotorCraft.


(phone app link)No. Ford didn't make a different box for each option or pacakage - all F150s & Broncos go the same box from '80-96 (at least).


(phone app link)Use the right tool, of course. I prefer Darth Vader:


(phone app link)