The Camaro Club (UK)

Any thoughts on what could be causing this leak? Would there be a seal on the bottom or something that may be compromised? I'm guessing it would be sage to undo the bolt and move the pitman arm (or idler arm, can't remember which one it's called) out of the way and no fluid would come out?

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Is the oil coming out of the bottom, or dripping down from the top?

There is a seal on the shaft, and I guess it can wear out, and can be damaged if heat is used to remove the arm. You can get replacement seals - http://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/chev ... +seal,7360
or a full seal kit - http://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/chev ... l+kit,7407


You can remove the arm without making it leak any more (and will need to in order to replace the seal). It can be a bitch to get off, even with the correct tool, but technique goes a long way. The first time I took one off I was under the car for over an hour. 2nd time was nearer 5 minutes. It's definitely best removed when it's in the car, but it may be easier to do the seal when it's off the car. I've not done one, so not sure there.


On a side note and related to your other post - if it's leaking at the bottom it could be the source of the oil spatter you are seeing. When the fans get going it can throw it in unexpected directions.

Cheers Jamie - sorry I should have mentioned that this is a different car to the other thread

Ye the leak is coming from the bottom, the top is bone dry and around the hoses etc. on this one. Shaft seal makes sense then - i'll add it to the list, thanks for both of the links! Guess it makes sense to get a whole kit as the price of it pretty close. Is there much of a trick to removing that arm? My initial thought was to take a big socket with a long bar to it. I think it's splined, is it also pressure / taper fit? Cheers!

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Yes, it's a splined taper.

First, get a pitman arm puller. It's desinged for the job and pulls in the right places.
Second get 2 large hammers.

Remove the large nut apply the pitman arm puller with a reasonable amount of force - try too hard and you may break it. You just need to ensure it is starting to pull.
Now take the two hammers and hit both sides of the arm at the same time. This will slightly compress the circle around the shaft, breaking the interfernce fit and it it will (should) just fall off. It may take a few hits, and/or cranking the puller up a little.

The same technique can be applied to other taper fit joints on the suspension.

Thanks for the walk through, that's very helpful! I have some gearpullers and similar so should be able to use one of those. Reminds me of the tie rods and using a pickle fork and very large hammer (not a job for 11pm!) but won't be using a pickle fork incase of damage. Apparently they don't make aftermarket pitman arms.

It's leaking something fierce now - I went to have a look and there's a long trail of oil, more than I think even fits into the reservoir, so guessing it won't be leaking for long. Will be assembling a large list of parts and this will be on top of the list. Hopefully by then the exchange rate will have somewhat improved.

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Interestingly mine leaks in exactly the same place. I bought a pitman arm puller and a lower seal about a year ago, but still haven't got round to doing it.

Once you get the arm off I understand there is a lower seal, which the videos I watched show people screwing a self taper into so they can pull it out! You can then change the lower seal quite easily, but the best solution is to change the lower and upper seal together which I believe it much harder to do.

Ultimately I want to change my box for a 3rd gen one, faster ratio and should be a 'bolt in' as although mine was built / sold in 79 it's an 80 model year which means the box should be metric and a straight swap. Hopefully.....

Here is a link to a video. May help! But I may be asking you for advice as it sounds like you'll get to yours before I do mine!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbmZCPDfXSA

Been there and done that!

Mines a 79. The box was a straight swap, but the fluid line fittings were different. The old ones are inverted flare, the new ones are o-rings. In mine case I got the full setup from the later car - pump, lines and box, so it was easy to swap.

I believe that you can get inverted flare to o-ring adapters.