I Have a 2001 4 door 4x4 Blazer and just hit 100k miles a month ago. I have a slew of problems with it and mechanics ask for insane amounts of money for their labor. I took it in to get my differential seals replaced (and the front one still appears to be leaking :/) I have also been told that the idler and pitman arms need replaced. I just did the sway bar links myself this last weekend, (the mechanic wanted 150$ to swap them out!) While i was under there i took off the front plastic cover and noticed that the pitman and idler arms do indeed look pretty worn. My question is regarding the pitman arm. I have a hanes manual and it seems to me that the pitman arm should be pretty well attached with none of that gearlike rod coming from the steering box visible between the arm and the box. Now when i was looking at mine there was at least a good centimeter of that visible(possibly more), and it appears to be heavily rusted. Did my stupid pitman arm come half off? is this normal? Does this mean getting a new arm would be moot without a new steering box? (on a side note i also discovered that the transfer case is hemmoraging grease where the drive axe that goes to the front differential comes out of it, are there any guides for fixing that here?)

Any help would be appreciated. Ive had this truck since 04, and it was my first vehicle. I may have kinda been rough on it for the first 3 years, but I really do like the damn thing and would like to keep it going for as long as i can.

 

if your looking at the gap between the gearbox and pitman arm theres actually like a plastic sleave in there. you can just poke at it with a screwdriver and push it upwards which you will have to do to slide the jaw of the pitman arm puller anyways. if your truck has that big crossmember under the bolt youre either going to have to remove your gearbox totally or just unbolt it from the frame and turn it sidways to get a impact on it to get the nut off.

i do so many of these things and your right places charge a ton, i can usually knock a idler/pitman arm out in under a hour as long as the truck isnt a rusted mess

 

i hate pitman arms on gm 4x4s, but i live in ny and you want to see some rust ugh lol. +1 on the pitman arm, on the grease issue, if its grease not oil at the transfer case, the boot on the c.v. joint on the t case must ripped. u can buy that joint now aftermarket for about 100 bucks not hard to change. dorman makes the new part