No steering!

[devilsfan]

When I pulled into the driveway last night, I heard a loud pop from the front end. This morning, went to pull out and the steering wheel turned just fine - but the front wheels didn't turn! :( The passenger front definitely looks askew, but the tie rod looks intact. The driver front is dead straight but won't turn. Anyways, anyone else experience this? I had it towed to the dealer, but I'm supposed to get a steering upgrade in a week and a half when I take my truck in for a new lift. I'm going to be pissed to have to replace a part for just a week and a half! :(

[Hellz]

did you open the hood to see if there was anything wrong in there??

[devilsfan]

Looked fine. Truck was running great too.

Was hoping this was one of the "common" H2 issues (= quick and cheap fix!).

I did have it at the dealer a few weeks ago to replace a seal on the front axle....is it possible they screwed something up in the process?

[LoJac963]

I'm assuming there was no obvious puddles of PS fluid or anything like that?

[devilsfan]

Got the diagnosis - broken pitman arm! Seriously? I've off-roaded this thing for years without an issue and it breaks doing a turn in my driveway?

[[__--MUD--__]]

consider yourself ****ing lucky it did break in your driveway.

I had a 79 lifted bronco back in highschool used to do all kinds of stupid **** in. Steering shaft completely snapped in half turning around in my driveway.

**** like that shows someone is watching out for you...

What lift actually includes steering components besides tierods?

I am having a custom centerlink, idler & pitman arms (double capturing the center link), heim jointed (greasable w/ dust caps) tierods - being manufactured at a machine shop in arizona all made out of chromoly. No one has anything like this forsale and readily available. There isn't one manufacturer out there that didn't half ass some individual part to their steering setup. Everything is completely designed to work together. A grenade could go off under my rig and the steering will still be intact. Should have the parts in my hands in 10 days. Not cheap...I have about $2000 wrapped up in it so far.

[SummitUp]

Got the diagnosis - broken pitman arm! Seriously?
Man that's hard to believe, that pitman arm is heavy duty. Seriously, did the arm break in two, or was the failure in the ball joint itself?

Please post some pics of the carnage when you get the chance!

[devilsfan]

The arm did not break in 2 - it looks like it severed where it attaches to the center link. I'll get more info when I get the truck back on Monday.

MUD - some of the Bulletproof lifts for other models (ie Chevy) do include steering components. I don't know of one for the H2 tho.