seventy2plus2 wrote:

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I'm guessing you've possibly damaged it with the vibration of the impact gun. Also, do you mean to say your REmanufactured Saginaw box?

I just slid the pitman arm onto the splines, put on the washer & nut, and tightened it down.

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 Exactly what Clint said. Locktite is not needed and never turn the arm against either of the steering gear's extreme left or right turn positions. If you do, the force against the gear can damage the steering gear internal parts. The gear is not intended to absorb that kind of force, especially from an impact wrench. Tighten the nut to proper torque specs holding the arm in the center, so no force is put on the gears. I had to learn this the hard way too.

cdnpont wrote:

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Yesterday I installed the Pittman arm on my manufactured Saginaw box.

I used red locktite on the new nut along with the lockwasher.  Used my big electric impact gun to run the arm up onto the splines. Gave it a good hit.

Now it appears the box has some very slight play off center.  It had zero play previous to the arm install. Maybe it can be adjusted out later?

 

Have I damaged it by using the impact? I've done them before this way with no issue.

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 THE BOX WILL HAVE SOME PLAY WHEN OFF CENTER, AND  ZERO PLAY AT HIGH POINT 

WHEN CENTERED UP.

As a footnote to the thread; On the road,  the box is fine, feels great and has no leaks. But I'd never slam the nut on with a gun again.

Im glad I didnt have to remove the pitman arm from the manual steering box in my Nova when I changed up to power steering. Not sure how that would have gone!

As I recall, the new power steering box came with a new pitman arm and that thing slid on and off relatively effortlessly. I centred it and installed it on the bench, tightened the bolt with a wrench. The friction fit to the steering linkage was a bit more work, but harder to remove than install!