tyssniffen

Hey all,
so, slid into a landslide on my left side, went into peanut butter like mud up past the axles, most of the pile hit up under the left front tire. Once I got it power washed off (which was a bear), I noticed a shiny bit where normally it's just all dirty and rusty.
I think this small first link is called an Idler Arm, and I'm wondering what I should do. How dangerous is this as it is? How do I get it back in there? Is this thing so messed up I need to get new parts?

Notice the power steering fluid also on the outside of the pump.


shiny bit reveals a problem

oliver foster

Is the steering wheel now rotated to a new "hour on the clock"?

That spline coming out of the steering gear that goes to the pitman arm is an important link. If that goes, you loose ALL steering input. I would check it out carefully.
Maybe you can have someone crank on the steering wheel left and right, while you look for unusual movement in the steering parts

tyssniffen

steering wheel does not seem to have changed it's "hour"

I did just that - got the front off the ground and had the wife turn it back and forth - seems to turn the wheels... I don't see anything going wrong. I did actually drive to town after getting out of the landslide (with all the mud up in there) and didn't feel any steering problems.

how crazy it is to get off and put on? is that nut holding it up crazy for amateur me to try and tighten? or, if I did take it off to re-seat, would that be impossible?

NJTman

I'm gonna take a guess here that if you didn't see any lateral or vertical play in the arm when the wheel is moved back and forth, that the reason you see shiny is because it's leaking PS Fluid on the splined shaft, and kept clean by doing so.

My gear was rebuilt and the seal failed TWICE afterwards.

It's only a minor drip, but annoying anyway.

No play between shaft and arm, means nothing to do, other than keep the fluid at full.

oliver foster

The nut is not that hard to spin off. The pitman arm can be a bear to pull off sometimes...Unless it is already loose, which is what I would check.

tyssniffen

well, if I get it off, do you think that would help to re-seat that linkage thing? or would *tightening it up* push that thing back in?

oliver foster

The nut is designed to push the pitman arm on to the spline when you tighten it.

tyssniffen

but NOT push the spline in. I think the pitman arm is in the right place on the spline, so tightening it won't help, right? I did try putting a clamp on the thing and squeezing back together... that didn't work.

u2slow

The arm on the steering box spline is the Pitman arm. The next short link (runs fore-aft) from the Pitman arm to the front axle is the drag link.

What is the shiny spot? The area just above the spline? Perhaps your steering box always leaked a bit, keeping the shaft from rusting ( but still collected dirt) and power washing just blew off the dirt?

I'm not seeing any real problem here. Just keep your power steering pump topped up.

tyssniffen

well, that's great to hear. I don't think it was always exposed like that, but just got cleaned up. I think that it used to be a tight fit, and smacking into the mud sort of yanked it out a bit. I will be sure to top up fluid.