1997 Chevrolet Suburban K1500 V8 6.5L with Forged Control Arms Front 15 Piece Steering & Suspension Kit TRQ PSA53076

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Hi, I'm Mike Green. I'm one of the owners of 1A Auto. I want to help you save time and money repairing or maintaining your vehicle. I'm going to use my 20-plus years' experience restoring and repairing cars and trucks like this to show you the correct way to install parts from 1AAuto.com. The right parts installed correctly. That's going to save you time and money. Thank you and enjoy the video.

In this video we're going to install a new Pitman arm on this 1996 Tahoe. It is the same as any 1988 to 1998 Chevy truck. This is a four-wheel drive vehicle. So four wheel drive trucks and also 1992 to 1999 SUVs, four-wheel drives.

You will need the following tools: penetrating oil, a whole host of mm sockets, 18-mm fitting wrench, joint fork and hammer Pitman arm puller and actually not listed here was a 19-mm socket and ratchet or your tire iron to remove your tire. You'll also need a jack and jack stand or lift.

To check and see if you have a bad Pitman arm you can see where this front driver's side tire we're going up and under. Here's your transfer to here and then up right there is the joint of your Pitman arm. This here is your Pitman arm and then this is your steering linkage. Again, here is your Pitman arm. Here's your steering linkage. Now when you move your tires, I'm just grabbing hold of the tires and kind of turning them back and forth when the car is above the ground and you can see there is a lot of play and movement going on around that Pitman arm. That joint is bad.

First, you'll want to remove this skid plate which is four 15-mm bolts. You can see two easy here, and there's one up here and one you cannot really see, but over here. Now we're going to remove the steering box to get to the Pitman arm. Okay. So, this is the driver's side of the engine compartment. There's the power break booster and this right down here is your steering box. It's a little difficult to see. It's where you can see these tubes going in. There is a plastic shield here. It kind of clips around. Now you can see this was clipped up and around here. You just kind of peel that off and pull this plastic shield back and now you're going to want to use some penetrating oil and douse both your fittings, one here and then one a little further up. It's kind of difficult to see.

There are two fittings to douse with penetrating oil and then there's also a bolt. You might be able to barely see there and then you also want to loosen this bolt here and that loosens the coupler from the steering box shaft. The best tool for removing those power steering fittings is a fitting wrench like this, 18 mm. See it down on there? I got it on there and then once you loosen it with a fitting wrench you can usually get an open-end wrench on there to help you navigate it the rest of the way.

Then, make sure you have a catch pan underneath to catch the fluid as it starts leaking out. Now we're going to use an 11-mm socket and ratchet and extension to loosen that bolt. Down in there put the socket and ratchet on there. At this point it might be good to have someone help you just hold the steering wheel so it keeps that from turning at all. Once you remove the bolt then you want to take a large screwdriver or a pry bar and put it down in there and just make sure that you can move the steering shaft away from the steering box and if you watch you can see that the shaft is moving from the steering box pretty easily. When I actually unbolt the steering box I'll be able to pull it right out.

No from underneath here's the front of our transfer case on this four-wheel drive truck and this is our Pitman arm joint right here. So, it's a 21-mm bolt. I'll use an impact wrench. As you can see we removed the tire over here and this is a joint fork. So, we're going to bring it in from the side here and then use a good hammer. Basically we just removed the tire so we can get a good wrap on this fork. Okay. You see that fork just separates that joint. Now we get to the three bolts that hold your steering box on and I just used a little screwdriver kind of bend this fender up a little bit because it was in the way and you can just tap it back down with a hammer when you're done. Then you can easily get a socket and extension on there, and just to show you it can be done with hand tools, again, 21-mm. I'll just do the rest of it with an impact wrench just to be quicker.

Hold on to the box with one hand. If not it's just going to fall out. Move it up and out of the steering gear and pull it forward from the shaft. Here's the bottom of it. Put the steering box here, upside down, once again just so any more fluids just drain out into the pan. Here's where having an impact wrench is going to be really valuable. Then this socket is a 34 mm. If you don't have an impact you can just turn it on all the way and then use a large bar. You may want someone to help hold it. You could bolt your steering box onto a longer piece of wood which would help you to keep it steady, but having an impact wrench is the best way. Now, you're going to want to use your Pitman arm puller. This is really the only way to do this.

Believe it or not I actually forgot to film, or I messed up and I didn't film pulling the Pitman arm off so I'm just going to show you how to use the Pitman arm puller and the tool on to the idler arm. It's the same idea. You would just be doing it on the steering box. Put the tool on like that and then put your wrench on there and then pull and it breaks it right free. Okay, and this ends part one of this video. If you want to see, obviously, reinstalling the Pitman arm go please to
part two.

We hope this helps you out. Brought to you by www.1AAuto.com, your source for quality replacement parts and the best service on the internet. Feel free to call us toll free, 888-844 3393. We're the company that's here for you on the internet and in person. Thank you.

Brought to you by 1AAuto.com, your source for quality replacement parts, and the best service on the Internet.

This is part two of doing the Pitman Arm on this '96 Tahoe, which is the same as any '88 -'98 GM truck, or '92 - '99 SUV with four-wheel drive. Again, a little refresher on the tools that you'll need.

Believe it or not, I actually forgot to film... or, I actually messed up and I didn't film pulling the Pitman Arm off, so I'm just going to show you how to use the Pitman Arm puller and the tool on - this is actually the idler arm. This is the same idea, you would just be doing it on the steering box. You put the tool on like that, and then put your wrench on there and pull it, and that breaks it right free. Once we've used the puller, we can take the old arm off and put the new one on. There are four marks, or four larger teeth that make sure that you put the arm on in the right position. The best thing is just take the old one right off and then put the new one right back on in the same position. That way, you know that you have it centered correctly.

We'll put the big lock washer back on... actually, what we might want to do is put the nut on first, tighten it a little bit, which presses the arm on, and then take it off of the lock washer. Then, right up in here you can see, here's our steering coupler. The bolt is to the frame side, and it's basically straight up and down, so you want to have your steering box ready to go the same way. So, it's ready to go up in there. This flat spot here is what aligns with that bolt, so then, basically, take your box and put it in there. Now we've got our steering box up in there. Now take a bolt, feed it through, and you can see it come out on this side. Try and position the steering box so the bolt will go in, and then once you've got the bolt started, just reach up on top of the steering box, make sure your hoses are free - they're not pinched in between the frame and the box. Wrap the third one here.

Here's that Pitman Arm, and here's where it hooks into our steering, and while we still have the box loose a little bit, just move that all into place, and then just start this nut on there for right now. Before you actually tighten up the steering box to the frame, you'll want to connect your linkage here. You can see right down there is the end of the steering box, and this, I have this rubber boot pulled back. This telescopes back and forth, and what you want to do is, you can see there's a flat spot here on the gear, and then there's also a flat spot in your coupler, which I have right at the top now, so you basically want to push your shaft down on there and lid on. Then, put the bolt in, and you want to tighten this bolt up to about 35- 40 foot-pounds. Okay, we've reconnected and tightened both the power steering hoses, and they are different-sized fittings, so you shouldn't have any problem.

I'm going to torque these bolts to 120 foot-pounds. I'm going to torque this nut to 80 foot-pounds. I'm going to put in our new Pitman Arm came with a cotter pin and lock it, and it looks like I need to tighten it another quarter turn. I push the cotter pin through and pull it down around to lock it. Obviously, you're going to want to put your wheel back on, and when it's down on the ground, you're going to want to torque those lug nuts to 120 - 140 foot-pounds. Now, here I am adding some power steering fluid and, basically, you want to fill it to the level it's supposed to be, turn the car on, turn the steering wheel back and forth a few times, and then refill it until it's at the right levels. Then the last step is some grease on this fitting, and it should be all set.

We hope this helps you out. Brought to you by www.1AAuto.com, your source for quality replacement parts, and the best service on the Internet. Please feel free to call us toll free: 888-844-3393. We're the company that's here for you on the Internet, and in person.