Hello and questions on steering assembly

[kiwiflea]

Hi,
We’ve just bought a Dodge Ram Sportsmobile camper in San Fran, taken some time off and were planning a big US roadtrip this summer. Sounds idyllic doesn’t it….however we only got as far as Fairfield before the steering became unsafe.
We took it to a local repair place and arranged to have a new steering box installed. Trouble is, it’s now two days later and initially we were told that they were having trouble removing the old box. Then we were told that they’d managed to pull the old steering box out, but with the pitman arm attached and they were having a lot of trouble trying to separate the pitman arm from the steering assembly in order to attach it to the new part.
Can any of you Dodge experts shed light on the join so we can understand the issues at hand. We think it’s a pin and tapered join and therefore cannot understand why it won’t come apart. If it turns out the join is so fused separation is not possible, what are our options?
We’d be really grateful for any input.

 

[crazzywolfie]

you should have checked online before you paid someone to fix it. you can usually adjust the steering box a bit and tighten the steering up a bit. most of the time if your steering box is not leaking then your pitman arm is most likely being held on by rust. i think any decent mechanic should not have had much of an issue with it. most of the time slop in the steering is from the steering shaft slip joint. you can usually get a rebuild kit for about $5