Ford Repair: manual steering gear, pitman arm, sector shaft

Question
I want to rebuild my manual steering gear on my 2wd 1972 F-100. The numbers on the casing are Ford C7TR 3580-A with a CAL 29 stamped on it. Is this a Pitman gear? Which of your rebuild kits do I order?  Do any parts have to be pressed in to place? Otherwords, can I rebuild it myself with hand tools? Please advise. Thanks.

Answer
Mr. Bigelow,

This is not called a pitman gear. Your pitman arm connects to your sector shaft. You can rebuild it at home as most things that you will replace are just seals (which the rebuild kit consists of). Go to a reputable auto parts store such as Auto Zone or Napa and give them the year of the truck and tell them it is manual steering and request the rebuild kit for the manual steering. If they do not have it in stock, they will order it for you. There are no parts that will need to be pressed into place. Hope this helps. Good luck and I apologize for the lengthy response time as i was experiencing technical difficulties with my ISP.



Ken