Hello.....I recently replaced the pitman arm on my 32 with 53-56 F100 steering box with a new replacement...The new arm is approximately 6.5" from center to the mounting ball..While the old one was approx 4.5" .I don't like the way the car drives as the steering seems too fast for the car and the type of roads that are in my area..I can't seem to find a replacement shorter than the new one that I purchased.. The reason for replacement was the previous idiot that owned the car had ground off a dangerous amount of material in the upper portion to gain clearance..This has been addressed now..I had a welder friend repair the old arm...Now the repaired arm will not squeeze tight enough on the sector shaft...Is it possible to heat and squeeze the arm to tighten the gap?....Thanks
How good is your welder friend?....lots of guys can stick stuff together, especially with a mig....if he knows proper welding techniques and understands metallurgy I wouldn't fear the repaired arm( I otherwise SERIOUSLY WOULD!) ...is the gap where the bolt squeezes the arm closing until the two sides touch? If so maybe you could grind the gap a little bit wider...how loose is it? Maybe you could slide a couple of old feeler gauges in to work as shims.....
Is it possible to lengthen the steering arm on your axle? If so, that would cancel the effect of the longer steering box arm. Bones
Take a blade out of your feeler gauge....say .003,and cut a shim,or two,and slide them between the shaft,and the bore of the arm on the sides.Try tightening down pinch bolt.Not a perfect situation ,but neither is welding pitman arms.
Damn, Eric it almost sounds like your pitman arm got extremely hard and lost its ability to squeeze around the shaft. Did your welder quench the hot metal to cool it, also where exactly did he Weld?....if he is a good, knowledgeable, experienced welder have him shorten the arm that's too long. Have him do this near the center of the arm so no distortion effects the fastening points and I myself would Weld a rib the length of the arm if space allowes " bridging " the joint so if the welded joint were to break the arm would still have the rib to bend and leave you a little safety margin.....
F.Y.I. The gap between the ears is not supposed to to come completely together. Your only concern is that the arm get's enough clamp force not to be loose in the splines. If it's tight on the splines leave it alone. Maybe check it a few times after driving if it worries ya.
On a second note, you are aware that you can just move the Ball on the arm and not need to cut and weld one to make it shorter,,,, right?
He's an experienced welder..However...He was trained at a tech school and US Army..More of a fix it guy than anything else ..But is not an authority on automobiles or metals....Here is a before shot of what was built up the top portion around the bolt area...I would like to purchase a shorter arm and honestly don't feel comfortable with him or anyone else locally shortening the factory arm...Even though the car is already somewhat scary to drive...I also enclosed a photo from this forum that I believe represents both the arms I currently have...But the part # on the shorter arm doesn't work in any internet search engine..I understand the gap will still remain somewhat.after the final torque ..But even after the bolt clamping force..I can still wiggle the arm on the sector shaft...Thanks
Long term you might be ahead to get a F1 box,and rebuild it,and adapt the mounting flange.The 48-52 box will take any pitman from the early 30"s up to about 48.Pitmans come in several lengths,and some are straight,some curved.The pitman is thinner so it clears frames better than the F100.
I bet the weld he put back on the pinch area of the pitman arm is really hard metal. Not gonna flex when clamped. I wouldn't use such a buggered up pitman arm. My life is worth too much. I would think a better solution is to shorten the long arm using proper methods of welding, and crack check it when done. Or spend more time researching the production shorter arm. Or, like Boneyard said, you could install a longer arm on the spindle to counteract the longer pitman.
Again, you don't need to cut and weld the arm to shorten them. There are both weld on and bolt in replacement ball ends. Henry did them both ways. Drill a new hole, prep it for the style you choose, install new Ball unit and cut off the extra.
But to put a new separate ball stud in you need enough meat on the pitman to hold the stud. The pitmans neck down in between the ball and the top end for quite a ways. I didn't think there's enough meat to make me confident.
As usual you guys are right...Either way the welding idea presents a dangerous situation for me with what and who I have locally to work with..If I should run across the shorter arm I will definitely purchase...In the meantime I need to look for a replacement ball...Any ideas on where to purchase?..I see MACs has a weld on for Model A....I wonder if ball is same size as F100?
https://cgfordparts.com/ufolder/showproducts.php?c=1&s=7&g=65&t=403 Make sure it's the proper diameter you need.
All of Ford's steering balls are 1"dia. The stud or shank is much smaller. For a tapper fit you start with a 7/16" hole and plunge the tappered ream to 5/8" on the large end then spot face small side for a nut to seat on. The press in plug weld is a 1/2" shank so you of course would drill a kiss smaller and use a strait ream to size the hole for press fit. Then plug weld back side. This is being done in Forged steel not cast iron. Given the number of this kind of work I personally have done if it could fail I'm quite sure I would of had more than one pissed off customer Chipping his Teeth at me. When you know what your doing you just don't do the things that have risk factors of failure.
Give the welder a little credit!!! Welding is NOT like glueing things together. With the right "heat"the base metal will melt AND the welding material will melt and form one solid material. If it makes you "feel better" put the modified arm in the biggest vice you can find......get a nice long cheater bar and slide it on the end of the arm......now 'lay-down-on-it' and see if it snaps! Bet it won't. Now compare THAT with the stress your steering will put on it. IF its lost its temper.....it will bend first. You will notice this first. Have him V out both sides of the shortened pitman arm and weld away......or V one side and weld it up and then backgrind the V and weld that to get 100% weld. I bet he knows this stuff so shorten it.....weld it....relax and enjoy it! 6sally6
you understand as well that when you put on the new pitman arm you wont get the bolt in as the pitman arm will be hard against the frame with the sector shaft 1/4 inch short of the end of the arm.. Im in the process of milling the commonly sold steering box wedge so that it brings the box closer to the inside of the frame .. you loose the thin end of the original wedge in the process but thats not a problem It also shifts the steering box over by the same amount relative to the clutch pedal so you might have that knock on effect, .. As for the shortening side of things, I would opt for the weld in ball . I have used these weld in balls for lots of applications they are cheap and strong . The loads transmitted through the end of the pit man arm will be in shear which will be a lot stronger than a weld mid shaft .. although a weld mid shaft will be strong if done properly . I would always prefer to weld this stuff myself and be confident it was done with a deep root weld and steep weld prep, allowing 100% penetration and maximum weld contact area . I have even taken them to the anvill and forged the weld area to compact it and dress it without any grinding.. but that was before I realised that replacement steering balls were cheep and plentiful.
So many ways to get the same End Result. My outlook is to do the least amount of impact on any given part to make it do what you need done. That generally spins over to what do I have in my own Tool Box that will get-er-done. Most all of us have some kind of a Drill, not all are Qualified Welders.
Update. I ordered a weld in stud. Was going to to do the bolt in type But I don’t have the proper 7 degree ream for the mounting hole. I do own some welding equipment but I am horrible at it because even with a decent helmet I get blinded by the flash due to a head injury when I was younger. I wear sun glasses all the time as my eyes are super sensitive to light (Not trying to be cool lol) I think my welder friend can handle the stud task. I did check my alignment toe again last night and it was off Around 1/4 toed out. Now 1/8 in i had changed the spindles and backing plates and hadn’t checked it since This time last year I rebuilt the steering box and after reading about the potential problems caused by over tightening the sector float screw. I honestly think I had it too loose as even after the rebuild it never really had a center snug spot. No play. But no place in the entire rotation was there a tighter spot than another. No real feeling of center So I did Tighten it a little more and lowered the tire pressure slightly Today’s road test I could actually smoke a cigarette while driving and didn’t need the death grip of both hands on the steering wheel. Hopefully after the pitman arm mod it will be a decent driving car. Only issue I see now is the fast steering. Thank you all again.....Sorry for the long post. I’ve never owned anything older than mid 50s Chevrolet’s so these cars are new to me.
As you found out, 1/4" toe out is A LOT of toe out which makes the car squirrelly. Toe out makes the car turn in on corners better as it gives it more Ackerman, but that's generally used on the track. Zero to 1/16" toe out on some cars is too much. Unless you're in competition set it with toe in.
How bout........laying it sideways on the vise (or something hard) and hit it with a hammer, closing the hole up a little? See if that tightens it up a little. 6sally6
The Jalopy Journal
