I have a 98 4dr 4x4 with 160k miles and have noticed some wandering in the front end lately. I have replaced the shocks, ball joints, and wheel bearings. The next thing is the tie rods and sway bar linkage. My question is while I'm working on the tie rods, should I replace the idler arm and pitman too? The idler don't look too bad to change but the pitman looks like quite a bit more work. How can I tell if they need to be changed? Is there any other thins that I should check out while I'm under the truck?

Thanks

 

Since replacing these items will require an alignment, if, when checking them, you notice any amount of play in any of these connections, replace the affected component. You can check the pitman arm with a friend that you trust. With the wheels on the ground, crawl under the truck so that you can see the pitman arm. While your friend wiggles the wheel, look for play where it mount to the output shaft from the gear box as well as at the steering linkage. This same technique can be used to find play in the tie rod ends.

The idler arm can be checked by pulling on the steering linkage, looking for play.

 

I already have the truck jacked up and the tie rods removed so I guess I can't really check them. I was thinking of replacing them just because I was already there. Will the pitman come off without removing the gear box?

 

It will come off with the proper persuasion with the proper tools. It can be "fun".

 

On my 88 the front cross member is welded to the beams so I had to remove the gear box to even get a wrench on the lock nut to the pitman arm. (also get a pitman arm puller and use an impact or it will suck trying to get it off the output shaft). I don't know what your year looks like but that's what I had to do. Gear box out - piece of cake...gear box in - frustrating (for me at least)

 

I found it easiest to remove the steering box from the truck to get the pitman arm off. Of course I didn't have a pitman arm puller but I did have a 3 jaw puller and an electric impact so using what I had I was able to get it off very easily and in only about 25 minutes.

 

yeah it will be much easier to remove the 3 bolts holding the box in