[sling]

Ok. I have used several heat applications. Soaked with penetrating oil for over a week. And I have still broken a OEM brand pitman arm puller and a NAPA brand pitman arm puller. My big gear puller gives it just as much pull, but instead of breaking, it pries off some metal as it slides off.

So it there some kind of trick to this? It's really kicking my butt.

 

[Layson]

mine came right off... put a little tension on the puller and popped it with a hammer..

 

[Stringer Driver]

When using a puller you are suppose to put pressure on it and then hit the top with a hammer, not just try to make the puller do all the work.

 

[sling]

Thanks for the help so far. But yeah, I've been beating the crap out of the puller bolt and the pitman arm with tension on it. No luck yet.
I'm about to bust out with the sledgehammer or the grinder and cut it off.

 

[BMac]

The last one I removed was a pain too, broke two pullers, so I took a grinder with a cutoff wheel and cut the damn thing off

 

[sissy]

have you been heating the arm or the shaft it attaces to?

 

[sling]

The last one I removed was a pain too, broke two pullers, so I took a grinder with a cutoff wheel and cut the damn thing off

I'm going to try a couple more times. Then the cutoff wheel is coming out on this one too!

I've heated it up with a MAP torch for up to about 5 minutes. It was smoking. I've done this about 6-7 times. I've even tried shock cooling with water and reheating to try to break the bond.

What's strange is that this truck is very clean. No crud or corrosion. Most hardware on this truck comes apart with no problem. The big nut on the pitman arm shaft even loosened pretty easily with a breaker bar. Then spun right off. This arm is the first part on this truck to give me a headache.