Pitman Arm Won't Go All The Way Back On

[bishop166]

93 gmc c1500 242,00 miles.... replacing the pitman arm and idler arm.. The pitman arm was tough tough tough to get off but finally gave way. Now while trying to put the new one on. I lined up the spines, they are correct, the are clean and greased. I simply can not get it all the way back on. The gap at the top is big enough that i can put the tip of my index finger in. (sorry best description of the gap i can give) I and my father have put all we got into tightening the bolt so as to move the arm up the splines but it simply will not budge any further. Any suggestions?

[Wingnut]

I seem to remember my '89 C1500 being like that...And I just put the cotter pin in, and drove it.

[Doug_Scott]

The shaft is tapered slightly (that was why it was so hard to get it off), as long as the pitman arm is actually engaged on the splines, and you can get the nut on far enough to expose the hole for the cotter pin, it is on far enough. If you look at it, if you got the pitman arm all the way up to the top of the splines, the splines would actually be exposed on the bottom side (nut side) and the nut would not be able to tighten up against the arm due to running out of threads.