Rag joint and sliding joint on lower shaft side (the shaft with two flats on opposite sides) pics. Looks like the rag joint to box connection only goes one way on these models (I saw some pics of a flex joint for older GM's that appeared like you would be able to match any splines and mate the parts any way around).

 

Yeah pretty sure there's a flat spot on the splines coming out of the steering box, allowing only one set point. Never tried moving it, so not sure if that's possible or not ... but with the flat spot I doubt it. You can actually see the corresponding flat spot on your 1st pic of the shaft.

 

Thanks. Yes, pretty sure too so I'll let the alignment fix the wheel angle. I'll update if anything comes up.

 

I have done many alignments and I have seen vehicles come in with the wheel off so much I wasn't even sure a alignment was going to fix it , but its amazing what a few turns down there with a wrench does . Just make sure all your front end parts are tight .

 

Lol, all is well. They got it aligned, but did the job twice in two hours. The first guy aligned everything nice...but had forgotten to make sure the steering wheel was straight!

The timing was right for an alignment, cuz I had two tires put on in the back (fronts were fine), so that with the pitman arm changed, I had two reasons for the alignment.

 

I recently had to do that on a 95 Blazer, sounds about right. We didn't have the steering wheel off, but the wheel well was off. There was definitely only one way to attach rag joint to box. If you really pryed opened the clamp part it would probably go at least one other way.

I had a loaner tool from Autozone to remove the pitman arm, it could barely do it. I did not try an impact gun, but it did get a few taps from a hammer. The threads on the tool didn't look the same after. I was waiting for it to burst apart with every pull of a breaker bar. That one in the pics above looks much nicer, don't buy a cheap one!

 

Don't know if you had the wheel well off b/c of the joint, but that's an excellent idea for getting better access. I had a terrible time undoing and redoing the joint cuz it's all the way down there, and I could see that helping a lot, and also when undoing lines.

Yeah, you could probably put the rag joint to the box another way if you open up the clamp, but if it's meant to go one way, I wouldn't go as far as play around with it.

I used the pitman arm tool with an electric impact gun (maybe max. 160 ft.lb). Wasn't sure if it was gonna have enough juice, but it did it. Oh, and beforehand I sprayed the joint with PB blaster. Well worth the money that stuff, compared to WD-40 and Releaseall.

 

Given the tools at hand, and as we got into it, wheel well eventually came off so we could pull the whole steering box. Joint was easy to access and see at that point, and it probably started to get at the lines.

Fortunately there was help, or I was the help. And it wasn't mine, think it was 95 Jimmy, I figured at least it would give me an idea of what I may have to do on my 97 Blazer. I guess I have been lucky, except for cutting 1 exhaust bolt, never needed more than WD-40 on mine. But I do hear a lot about PB Blaster, I will get some!

 

One last tip, on any threaded puller, grease the thread and the head where it contacts a shaft. That makes it much easier to turn at high load, and should make tools last longer.