just changed the pitman arm in my 99 2wd. Got it installed, dropped the jack, now the steering wheel is upside down. Can't figure where I went wrong! Any ideas? Seems to drive alright

 

take it back off turn the wheel all the way to the right count the turns lock to lock ,then turn back 1/2 the number of turns, and reinstall....it should be right

 

Same thing happened on mine. How does this occurr? The wheels didn't move, and the orientation of the pitman maybe changed 1 or 2 degrees..

 

If the box is like the 4x4 box, it's impossible to put the pitman on wrong due to an irregular spline every 90 degrees. On the 4x4 you can just adjust for it on the draglink without messing with the toe, but on a 2wd I think the only way to really get it dialed back in is to have a shop do an allignment on it.

You can do it in your yard with tape measure and eyeballing it, but usually it takes a few test drives to get the wheel straight, and every time you'll be fooling with the tape and rod to get the toe right.

I'd say it's just a (to be expected) irregularity in the pitman arm. That's why there's adjustment at the tierods.

 

What happened with mine was, I tried to cheap out and get a low dollar part. Take your old part with you and compare to the new part. Also had to replace again this year, TRW part under warranty.

 

Mine is 4WD, and the pitman is "keyed". It went back in the same orientation that it came out. Still wondering how the steering wheel moved during this....must be something that allows it to turn when that nut gets loosened up. BTW, I did mine with the wheels on the ground, so no chance of movement of the tires either....

I have to remove the nut tomorrow morning to put a stabilizer system on it, and I'll see if the steering wheel moves then.

I've seen two numbers for torque - 180 and 225....I was able to get to 180 on my POS torque wrench, but don't see myself being able to get to 225 unless I get it up on a lift.

 

If you still have the old one, compare them. If it is off only by as little as a couple of degrees, it will be magnified probably twice as much at the steering wheel maybe more.

 

Wrap a strap around the wheel so it can't move.