what if any special tools would i need to REPLACE Rubicon Express drag link and stock pitman arm?

the new drag link already has ball joints in place so i think it is completely bolt on.

do i need a special puller for the stock pitman arm and anything special to install new pitman arm??

while im under there, im looking into replacing the tie rod ends, the ball joints are shot on this. do i replace tie rod ends or is it just ball joints? any special tools for this job?

thanks in advance

 

Don't know if you already swapped the Pittman arm or not, since there's no replies but this is about a week and a half old, but here's what I ran into in the past: I had a TJ and put a 4" TeraFlex Long Arm kit on it. Came with a Dropped Pittman Arm so I figured I HAD to install it (was a Jeep noob back then). Anyhow, I broke 2 separate rental sets of pittman arm pullers trying to get the darn thing off (Jeep was 2 years old at the time). Finally, a mechanic friend of mine brought his Snap-On "Full Surround" puller over (it's actually more like a 3/4 surround) and it came off with relatively little effort/trouble. I spent HOURS on that friggin' thing before he came over. I even tried hammering on the top of it, through the engine bay with an extension rod/hammer. Drove me nuts. Anyhow, to make a long story longer.... You'll need a pittman arm puller which can usually be rented from local auto parts stores, or my suggestion would be to bite the bullet and pay a mechanic to do it. I'm up for just about any mechanical work on my Jeep. I even blew my TJ's NP231 transfer case open and put in the TeraFlex SYE kit to go to a CV style drive shaft but there's 2 things I will never waste my time trying again.... Dropped Pittman Arm and Diff re-gearing. Both certainly have their place, and are welcome on my rig, I'm just not doing the work. The time and frustration that you'll save by paying someone else is well worth it, IMHO... Now, with all that said, the only way you'll know that the arm is going to be a major PITA to remove is to actually get under there and try it yourself, so by all means, don't let me talk you out of it if you're feelin' froggy, just be forewarned.
Good luck.

 

thanks alot man, i had fouind out more info somewhere else, my buddy has the pullers so we are going to give it a try ourselves. sibce thew pitman is bent, i may have to take it in the my mechanic guy, but i like trying myself first. about the only thin i have not done myself was the lift and gears, so im prretty mecghanically inclined but have not messedd wth front ends like this.. a pitman arm is nt something that normally goes out so no experience here.

the cool thing here is since the parts are bent and scrwed already, i can usse my torch and a BFH if i need to, just have to be carefull not to mess anything else up

again i do apprexciate the reply

 

Best of the luck on the pitman arm. Tried everything to get it off an XJ. Puller, anti seeze heating it up. Finally just ended up cutting the damn thing off.

 

No sweat. Sorry for the late response here, been pretty busy lately. Did you manage to bust it loose? It's always more satisfying when you do it yourself, even if it takes 3 times as long (or 4 or 5 in my case some times). By the way, how's old P-cola these days? I spent a year down there when I was in the Navy. Loved it (most of it, just not the humidity). Hope you enjoy your new clearance and watch out for those "hidden holes". A buddy of mine just about lost his CJ7 in one and he was running a modified crate 350 pushing 40" TSL's. Those bogs'll sneak up on you.

 

well unfortunately, some other financial stuff came up so i havent been able to buy the parts yet, hopefully soon. pcola same ole, its memorial weekend so if u know anything about that, its pretty crazy on beach right now. i try to do as much of the work myself as i can even if it does take longer, i like the learning process, oh yea i have gotten sunk in some of the holes before, had to have a quadcab wth a 15,000 lb winch to pull me out, that black fl mud sucks u in like quick sand

again thanks for the reply