Got my winter tires off and had my summer tires put on and when the mechanic tried to move one front wheel, there was a slack which made the wheel on the other side shake. He checked the pittman arm and the one on the other side said was called the idler arm, (is this the right name: 'idler arm' ?) ?
1. How long a job would this be for him to fix and about how long would it take ?
2. Do I need a wheel alignment job after ?
Thanks,
Danyboy

 

Yes, you will need an alignment after changing these components. The idler arm (yes that is what it is called) should be quite easy, but the pitman arm can be a pain to get off of the steering box.

 

Thanks,
Danyboy

 

Swatrlkk is right. I just changed both my idler arm and pitman arm. Idler arm took about 15-20 minutes. To change the pitman arm you have to pull the steering box out of the truck. Total time to change pitman was a couple hours cause I had a bitch of a time removing the arm from the shaft after I had the box out. My bench vise was broken so had nothing to hold the steering box while working on it. Also a bit messy with power steering fluid dripping.

 

Just a quick ?. You can't get a ptiman puller on there with it in the truck? What about an oversized "pickle" fork and a hammer?

 

Idler arm was easy. Pittman arm more of a bitch. Nut screwed to steering box underneath bolt securing the pittman arm was tight against the frame. Really good engineering design, those GM engineers must had smoked some really good weed when they came out with such an idea.
Had to remove air filter box from above, disconnect steering box piping and bolts to the frame, pull out steering box from above. Pull pittman arm out of steering box with a puller while held in a vise.
Anyhow, done and happy about it. Talked to some mechanics about it and opinion is shared between having to get a wheel alignment done or not. I think I'll go anyway just to make sure.
Thanks to all for advice, this website has been very helpfull for me.
Danyboy