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Stripped steering gear sector shaft

Desert4x4

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Phoenix
So I was trying to remove the pitman arm nut to look at the sector shaft splines and check for play/wear. The nut started stripping and I couldn't remove it. So I tightened it back on, it went all the way back on but was very hard to turn as it was stripping the lower part of the threads of the sector shaft. The nut did get much harder to turn as the nut bottomed out onto the pitman arm. I tightened it as much as I could do, more than 200ft-lbs according to the torque wrench. My question is do you guys think this is safe to drive on? The nut is very hard to turn but the threads are all messed up, but the nut is flush with the arm.
 
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If the threads are messed up, they are messed up(not safe)! You need a new steering box.
 
I've never heard of removing the arm to check for spline wear.

As hard as the pitman arms are typically to remove, I'm skeptical that it would come loose even if you took the nut completely off. Is it just the exposed threads that got damaged? If you're really worried about it, you could tack weld the nut in place. I wouldn't go heavy on the welding for risk of damaging the seals. I say just keep an eye on it.
 
I've never heard of removing the arm to check for spline wear.

As hard as the pitman arms are typically to remove, I'm skeptical that it would come loose even if you took the nut completely off. Is it just the exposed threads that got damaged? If you're really worried about it, you could tack weld the nut in place. I wouldn't go heavy on the welding for risk of damaging the seals. I say just keep an eye on it.

Yeah just the exposed threads got damaged. The nut still tightened down, just took a lot of effort. I painted a white line over the nut to check for nut spinnage. I guess I'll tack the bottom of the nut later.
 
nothing tighter than a good cross thread!!

put a tack on it to be sure
 
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