My gearbox has been leaking for years (10+). I bought a used gearbox, but I decided I would wait until it got worse before changing it...well the small drip is now a hemorrhage.

I've been dreading this because removing the pitman arm looks like a PITA. Does anyone have advice on removing the pitman arm and then re-installing it? I'm worried about not lining it up right and messing up my steering....Do I need to have it aligned after changing it?

You will need a really good pitman arm puller. I mean, really good. The cheapo Harbor Freight ones are known to break. You could try soaking the splines beforehand to help. I would douse the area daily, for a week.

What exactly leaks?
Is it leaking where the steering shaft enters the box?
If that is the case, that seal can be replaced by itself. I had to do mine a few years ago. Disconnect the shaft and pull it away from the box, remove the big disk cover, and replace the seal on that disk. All while the box was still attached to the frame.

When I researched fixing it 10yr ago, I think you could only change the seal on the older version of the box. With the new version, you had to rebuild the box. I found a cheap used box instead, but have been putting off replacing because I didn't want to deal w/removing the pitman arm =/.

I'll start soaking it today. I was reading there are different puller sizes. Do you know what size I need to get? I'm going to try and get a loaner one.

I've use the HF puller and I did break it one time but I re-welded it and it seems to be holding well now. But yes, a good puller is key. What I find that works the best is to apply the puller, maybe give the side of the pitman arm a few whacks with a hammer and then leave it under tension. Then over a period of time, I'll give it another crank on the bolt head and another whack with a hammer every so often. It'll usually pop free after a while.

Pitman arm and steering box sector shaft typically have alignment marks on them:



And apply some anti-sieze to the splines before installing the pitman arm. Or you could just get a new pitman arm, I think the IFS one have the ball joints on them IIRC.

...ok 1 last question. I filled up the PS last night. It's leaking so much that the PS pump was whining by the time I went to lunch this afternoon.

Will I burn out the PS pump if it's low...Should I disconnect the pump until I get this fixed...might not be able to get to it for a week or 2.

Not sure how the V6 pump is driven, but if it is a separate belt, you could just pull the belt off for the time being.

3vze is ran off a seperate v-belt.

Thanks everyone....

So I wussed out =)....I was getting my truck smogged and got to talking to the owner of the shop next door. He said he would change it for $150...I went home to think about...the next day I decided it was worth it. I'm going to try rebuild the busted one.

on a side note...the smog guy took a picture of my truck and is going to put it on his wall....400+k and it passed smog =)

Right on!
I had a 94 4Runner for awhile, 303,000 miles. Purred and passed like a kitty here in Phoenix!

I dont know if you got this squared away yet or not, but just some thoughts.

There are 2 different style boxes, early and late. They will interchange, but the later is a little longer than the early, so youll have to shorten the steering shaft. Mine was so frozen in place that is was a pita to do.

Second, like Roger said, a trick that I use to get the pitman arm off is soak with PB, and then put a lot of tension on the puller, and whack it with a hammer, put more thension, whack, and repeat until it pops off. Let it sit for a while with tension and PB on it and it should come off.