57 T bird Steering gear

[Art B]

Hi, I would appreciate some help with instructions on how to remove the gear box.
Art.

[Yadkin]

Mine's a '64, but I rebuilt mine recently and the basic steps should be the same.

Remove the Pitman arm. Buy the largest puller you can find that will still fit. (I used one for a large pick-up truck.) While you are down under measuring, hit the top of the arm at the shaft with PB blaster to give it as much time as possible to soak in. Lubricate the threads on the puller with lithium grease, and assemble it onto the arm. After you tighten it as much as you dare and the arm is still stuck, take a big hammer and whack at the arm as close as possible to the shaft. The vibrations helps to unfreeze the assembly. A propane torch on the arm may also help. Tighten some more, hammer some more, repeat until you achieve victory.

Remove the rag joint from the steering column. Again, soak this with PB Blaster long before you start wrenching. There is a keyway on the steering box input shaft so that the bolt has to be completely removed in order to separate these components.

The box itself should be through-bolted to the frame, through vibration isolators. Usually there are three, and they are accessed inside of the front fender.

Sometimes you have to unbolt the engine from it's mounts and tip it up and to the side to gain clearance for the box to be removed. The sucker is heavy so keep yourself out if the way when it drops!