Removing the 'Pitman' arm - or not as it happens'.....

If you even wondered where the name came from...

Jason, on steamboats only the young and ignorant call the "connecting rod" a pitman ARM. It correctly is called the "pitman," and that is all. The pitman arm is a connection in the automobile steering gear, as you know.
The derivation is from the very first application of steam to industrial use, pumping out coal mines in England and Wales. Before steam was applied, a man bailed out the sump, or pit, where water was collected. The sump was called a pit and the man a pit man, just as today a trumpet player is called a brass man, or a mechanic is called a garage man. The connection between the steam cylinder and the sump replaced the pit man, and that is how it got its name.
But PLEASE don't call a pitman a pitman arm!

 

Leave it on and remove the steering box - the replacement box will have the "Pitman" attached as they won't have got it off either

It's a right fiddle though - you have to twist it through all kinds of angles to get it out.

 

You mean the Drop Arm as connected to the drag link? The common name given when teaching the fundamentals of Motor Vehicle Technology...see P316 of VAW Hilliers text book (fourth edition) on Motor Vehicle Technology.

 

I always assumed pitman arm was American for drop arm. I once had a Ford Anglia where the drop arm entirely broke whilst driving and the steering wheel did nothing. Lucky I wasn't going fast and in traffic.

This is no help at all I know, but I suspected it had previously been heavily bashed about rather than removed in an approved manner.

 

Simply passing on the name of a tool I'd bought and how it's described.
Sorry for any offence caused !!
No pitmans were harmed in the making of this thread

 

Or pitman arms

 

Is that the exact one you bought?
I'm going to need one soon as my steering box is the only thing I haven't removed from the van to refurb


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Hi para yep that's the exact one i bought mate you can just make out the item number in the bottom
Right.
Good for the money plus free delivery

 

Just ordered one myself so thanks

 

Thanks - I've ordered one as well, having previously failed to remove the arm.

 

Proper pitman puller didn't work.
So will need to try and remove the box with it still attached.
How do I get the box disconnected from the steering column so I can try to waggle it out?
The four nuts at the bottom of the bolts that hold it on to the rubber thingy just turn so I need to grab hold of the top of the bolt's, but how does the cover in the cab come off?

 

Cover in the cab is held on with two dome headed Phillips bolts


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Undid them - what about the plastic collar thingy - how is that removed?

 

Ah yours must be an earlier bus mine doesn't have a plastic collar


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OK and thanks anyway.

 

It is indeed a drop arm.

"Pitman" actually means "fellow who wears womens' clothing", in French.

 

What do you call "a fellow who wears womens' clothing" in chemistry or geography?

 

I see what you did there...

 

You have to loosen the bracket on the dash and lift the outer column out of the plastic insulator.