Hello,

The pitman arm broke on my 2005 Chevy Suburban 1500 4wd. I spoke to a mechanic and he asked if the Suburban had a lift on it and I said yes. As it turns out it puts a lot of strain on it. Anyway, I pulled the gearbox and removed the pitman arm. When I installed the new arm onto the gearbox I accidently wrenched on the nut way too tight. I'm afraid I may have come close to stripping the threads or stretched out the bolt. I'm a little paranoid now that I've experienced losing steering. I was wondering if I should pull the nut back off and expect the threads and bolt and torque it to proper specifications or buy a new gearbox for $250 and try again?

 

I can't really give you any advice since this is a safety issue, but perhaps your instincts are telling you something that might save someone's life, including yours.

 

what you could do is put a torque wrench on it and set it to manufactures specs for that nut and see if you get a click without the nut turning. if you do get a click turn it up a little and see when you dont get a click