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Buying 1980 rangie, Pittman Arm Broke or Steering box?????
Posted: Thu Jul 30, 2009 3:34 pm
by phtest
looking to buy a 1980 2 door 3.5 rangie ($1600) and the guy is telling me the pitman arm needs replacing.
My question is can I still drive it (home from Sydney to Canberra), how much will it cost to get done? Is it a job I can do myself?
After reading on this site I see the steering box can be a problem (expensive I know) So how do I know it just the pittman and not the steering box or both?
Posted: Fri Jul 31, 2009 12:18 pm
by TRobbo
Mate if the pitman arm is busted you will be able to see it just by looking. The pitman arm hangs off the shaft at the bottom of the steering box and pushes/pulls the steering rod that connects to the left wheel at the front. Another rod at the back connects the two front wheels together.
You therefore cant drive it if it is busted.
It is more likely that the shaft hanging from the bottom of the steering box has snapped off. If you are able to replace the old steering box with a good second hand one, remove and refit a couple of hydraulic hoses, fill it with fluid, bleed any air from the system and remove a ball joint then you can do it yourself. My estimate it would take the average bloke about 2 hours to do.
The other thing that you need to check is the backlash in the driveline. Best to be able to drive it to get a feel for this, although you can feel it to a lesser extent rocking components while the car is stationary and in gear. Unless the car is really cheap or is something really special I would keep looking.
Posted: Fri Jul 31, 2009 1:28 pm
by Simo63
You'll probably find the pitman arm (bolts onto the bottom of the steering box) has a fuxxed balljoint. Some are rebuiltable (look for the circlip on the bottom of the pitman arm) and other aren't (no circlip). Either way it's not a huge repair.
Just check that it's always been tight onto the spline from the steering box. If it's ever been loose then you will likely find the shaft is RS and you will never be able to tighten the pitman arm up.
Of course there are a plethora of other things to check for as well but I'm not sitting here and writing about those for the next hour ... use the search and find out about other Rangie issues.
Cheers
Simo
Posted: Fri Jul 31, 2009 1:48 pm
by nottie
Im with Simo on it could be the rebuildable ball joint on the pitman arm.