LiquidBlue

Hi Guys, was giving my steering some TLC today and as I was greasing the centerlink connection to the pitman arm I noticed the centerlink moving up and down the pitman arm socket. Should there be play here? I was using a air powered grease gun, so it has some heft. Is it possible I need to tighten the bolt? Its factory, w/ 65K miles on it.

Abubaca

iTrader: (3)

Pretty sure it should NOT. It's tightened down on that tapered end of the bj. I recently replaced all that stuff up front and I noticed that the balljoints on either end of my old centerlink would move up and down inside the center link. It wasn't that they were moving on the idler and pitman arm, but rather the joint itself just being really worn out. Not sure if that's what you're seeing.

LiquidBlue

Thanks Ab - Didn't think to look that close - to see if it is only the ball joint moving, but everything else is staying in place. Will definitely check that out. It's not seeming to get any side to side movement tho. For some reason, I thought pitman arms seldom wear out, which is partially what made me jump to the conclusion of bad centerlink or loose nut.

Was pretty tired by this point and didn't even think of checking to see if the nut was loose. Its probably never been touched since it left the factory, maybe it just came loose. First time I've used an air grease gun on it too, so it could have been this way a while now.

Abubaca

iTrader: (3)

I think a lot would have to happen for that pitman arm to go bad. Like accident kinda bad. On mine it wasn't the nut that was loose. The ball end of the ball joint was loose inside the socket end of the center link, if that makes sense. Figure if ya gotta grease it, there's at least some tolerance/space in there. Well....mine had about 1/8" of play up and down!

LiquidBlue

ya, that is about what I was seeing. 1/8" will report back on this, can't get to the car until next week at the earliest.

1985_IROC

I had to replace my inner/outer tie rods about a month ago, so I figured to also do the center link too. The idler arm seemed good, and the one I bought didn't match up the with the original one so I left the original. I didn't have any play (movement) at the pitman arm to the center link. But after I took out the center link, there was a tiny bit of play on the passenger side center link that attaches to the inner tie rod. Torque specs are all given in this video too, iirc they should be all 40 ft lbs. This is a video:
Also, if it is not the pitman arm itself, you may want to look at the steering box. Another good video:
I adjusted my steering box, and removed all the slack/play.

Here is my photo of the steering: https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/nort...ml#post6428113