I had a pitman shaft leaking, so I decided to replace it until I can get a good one. Directions said you could remove the seal without removing box. Couldn't find the snap ring, so pulled the box. Someone else had replaced it once and put the one seal outside the snap ring. Well I didn't figure this out until I had the steering gear apart. So I put it all back together and it only steers one turn left and two turns right. I had marked the pitman shaft to correlate with the arm. And the shaft can only go on one way since it has a flat spot on it. Well then I find out that the pitman shaft has two wide lands 180* from each other so it can only go on one way also.

Can someone tell me what the heck is going on? All I can figure it's something in the steering gear. I pulled the box again and looked inside, from what I can see it can only go in one way also.

Any help appreciated.

Bobg

 

I've had a couple come in with this problem, both were caused by the shaft where the pitman attaches being twisted in a going off the road accident.
The twist wasn't visable at all and box had to be replaced.