remove the 3 bolt that attach the steering box to the frame so it will move and give you more space for the separator.

when i did mine, i used a small gear puller, worked perfect !
i did both idler and pitman on my 98 blazer 4x4 in about 1hr 1/2. including removal of skid plate, and greasing of all balljoints and tie-rod ends.

 

My pittman arm was pretty good, puller didnt work. removed the whole box(pretty easy) and used an electric cut off tool cutting the arm almost to the splines, then using a chisel in the cut to spread it open and it popped right off

 

I just did my pitman arm and idler arm today. There was no way I could rotate the box enough to work on it without pulling it completely out. And if I was able to rotate it would have been impossible to get the arm off the shaft with it in the vehicle like that.

I got the box out and used one of the smaller pitman arm pullers I had and broke it, so I went to Autozone and rented the heavy duty puller for $90. And even with it and a 18" breaker bar I couldn't get it off, so I grabbed my air chisel and put a hammer attachment in it and put as much pressure as I could on the puller and hit the arm with the chisel. It took about an hour of hammering it and putting pressure on it before it came off. I heard it release, a loud pop.

One thing than made it easier to remove the box was a set of crow foot fitting sockets. I got them from NAPA. Those and a couple of long extensions made it easy to remove the lines from the box.

Tomorrow I'm doing the control arm bushings. Tons of fun doing those :-)

 

just had a buddy do mine and this is the method he used
he said he has seen to many power steering lines go for a crap with complete removal
It was to cold and wet for me to do myself at home

 

This thread has been real helpful so far.

Am getting ready to pull the trigger on a parts order as follows:
Idler body, idler arm, Pitman arm, inner/sleeve/outer tie rod assemblies.
Also, shocks for the stock Z71 suspension.
Couple of questions for the suspension knowers..

Center Link
Is there any reason to replace the center link? Is it common to damage them during removal of the old parts that fit into it with pickle fork?
For this year, 94, it looks like a non-wear item, with holes in it to accept tapers, but it seems like there are no joints to go bad. Am I reading that right?
Is it likely the old one will survive disassembly process with pickle forks and banging? New one is $35 so it can be done, but does it need to be?


Brand of parts
Are Moog parts satisfactory? Or is there another parts brand that is considered stronger or longer lasting?


Shock absorbers
Looking at Monroe 911514 / 5 at approx $44 each.
Any advice here? Stock ride height and feel is goal.

Any advice
would be appreciated.

Blazer is 94 K1500.

 

moog or timkin

 

For future reference, I've found (ok, I was told by a mechanic) that pounding the pickle fork in as far is it will go, and giving a sharp whack perpendicular to the stud on the part the stud goes in to frees it up easily. The shock deforms the socket enough to make it pop out. I've had good luck doing this.

 

go to your local auto parts store and get one of the rental pitman arm pullers

 

didnt work

 

I know I'm resurrecting this thread but I thought I'd add a few pointers since I am on the reassembly part of this process (new pitman and idler arms and TRE's) on my 01 4wd blazer. The pitman arm nut is 33mm. I used a pickle fork to break everything loose while still attached to the vehicle (this includes all tie rod ends, idler arm and pitman arm) as I don't have a workbench or vise so this allowed my some leverage. I too could not get the pickle fork and a 2lb hammer to break the TRE's loose. I had to use a splitting maul (to split firewood) and that worked...keep in mind it has an 8lb head. And yes it took 2 people..1 holding the fork and the other swinging the maul...better hope you've got a buddy that trusts you! I chose to pull the steering box out of the vehicle (soaked the power steering lines in kroil for 24hrs and gave them a whack on the line and nut before trying to loosen them). My air impact would not pull the pitman arm off with the puller from autozone. I set this in kroil overnight and reread this thread. Since the impact didn't work I was going to use a grinder with cutoff wheel ($20 at harbor freight) and cut down as close to the splines as I could get then use the chisel in the slit. Well the heat generated from cutting the slit was enough for the impact to pull the arm off. No need for the chisel. I also had a hard time leveraging the steering shaft off the steering box upon removal. Once off I feared it would be tough to get back on as there really isn't room to get leverage with anything. However with a long screwdriver I was able to tap the end off the shaft with a hammer once lined up and this worked to gradually slide it back on.

Hope this helps others in the future! My rig was driven in the northeast for a majority of its life so a lot of components are rusted/seized and the jobs are never as easy as they seem.