My how to guide to replace the drag link end at the pitman arm

I tried to replace my drag link end last weekend due to a rip in the rubber boot but I could not get it separated from the pitman arm. 

I asked on the forum for tips to remove it and everyone said to use either a pickle fork or to hit the pitman arm with a hammer and the drag link should pop off. Well, none of those methods worked for me. 

I beat on the pickle form and beat on the pitman arm and the drag link would not budge. Well, I ordered a new tool from Amazon during the week and I got the drag link separated pretty easily. Here is what I did.

I bought a ball joint / tie rod end / drag link separator from Amazon for $25. It pushes the stud out of the pitman arm and it worked great (and easy). I highly suggest that you all add this to your tool box if you do your own work on your Jeep.

So to remove the drag link, first remove the plastic air dam if you still have it on. It is only held on by 5 or 6 push pins and it takes about 1 minutes to remove. It will give you much more room to work.

Next, looses the nut on the stud on the drag link end. I removed the nut completely then threaded it back on several turns. I did this because when the drag link does come loose from the pitman arm, it just drops down...onto you if you are under the Jeep. 

Next, put the drag link separator tool on the drag link and pitman arm like shown in the picture. If you turn your steering wheel a little to the passenger side, it will move the nut away from the frame and give you room to work.

Next, tighten the bolt on the separator tool. I used a ratchet and it took 15 or so turns to get enough pressure on the stud to pop it out of the pitman arm. It will finally pop loose with a loud bang and scare the crap out of you.

I took some measurements on the drag link from the adjuster sleeve to the center of the drag link so that I could install the new one at close to the same length as the old one. Once it pops loose, remove the nut completely and the drag link will drop down. 

Loosen the nut on the clamp on the adjuster sleeve on the drag link side of the sleeve and the drag link will now just unscrew. Count the number of rotations it takes to unscrew so that you can install the new one the same number of rotations.

I replaced the old drag link end with a AC Delco drag link end that I bought on Amazon for $26.40. I wanted one that had a grease fitting on it so that I could easily grease the joint. The stock drag link has no grease fitting.

Now, just screw the new drag link end back into the adjuster sleeve. If you wrote down the number of rotations it took to unscrew the old drag link, turn the new drag link that same number of rotations to screw it in. 

Once I got the drag link screwed in close to my measurements, I put the stud back into the pitman arm and tightened down the nut.

The nut is difficult to get to with a torque wrench so I bought a 21mm crows foot wrench and I used an extension on my torque wrench. This allowed me to torque the nut on the drag link stud by reaching over the pitman arm. Torque the nut on the stud to 78 ft lbs.

Once I had the drag link secured to the pitman arm, I check to see if the steering wheel was centered and of course it wasn't. So, I loosened both of the bolts on the adjuster sleeve and just turned it until the steering wheel was centered. Then I torqued both bolts to 28 ft lbs. Then put the plastic air dam back on.