I just picked up a manual box from a 77 F150 for the purpose of using it as a cowl steering box. It will need reversed, but no problem there. My question is that it is 6 turns from lock to lock. Does that seem like a lot to you guys, or is it just me? What do you have, and how many turns is it? Any and all help will be appreciated.
The number of turns lock to lock isn't as critical as the ratio. How many degrees will the pitman arm rotate with one full turn of the steering wheel ?
I don't have a pitman arm for it, yet, but I'll measure the # of turns of both shafts and do a little math, and get back to you. Thanx for the quick reply. I hope this one will work, I already reversed it. It was SO easy!
If I turn the input shaft all 6 turns, the sector only turns 1/4 turn (or thereabouts) would that be 24:1? Is that bad?
The important factor when you get it installed and ready to use is: what kind of linear motion at the end of the pitman arm do you get out of "X" turns of the wheel. Lengthening the arm may may make up for a whole lot of slow gear. Did you mount it high enough to allow using a long arm without losing the parallelism between the drag link and the radius rods?
Haven't mounted anything yet. I want to get my ducks in a row before I start mounting stuff up. I was wondering if a longer pitman arm would compensate for the slow box, glad you mentioned that. My truck is going to be VERY low to the ground, so I will be limited on how long the pitman arm can be.
The length of your left front steering arm (that the draglink attaches to) and the length of your pitman arm will determine how quick the car steers. How many turns will you be comfortable with ? I'm helping another HAMBer with a similar deal. His box is 22.5 : 1. With a 5 1/2" left front steering arm and a 6 5/8" pitman arm it works out to 4 turns to steer the front wheels from full left (40 degrees from straight) to full right (40 degrees from straight).
I was just wondering about the front steering arms! Thank you! That is exactly what I wanted to know!
To figure out your ratio--- Clamp your box in the vise, to the bench, whatever. Mark the input shaft and the box and line up the marks Put the pitman arm nut on the output shaft snug, so it won't twist put a magnetic angle finder on one of the flats on the pitman arm nut note degrees of start position. turn input one full rotation, line up marks. note degrees at stop, subtract start from stop. divide 360 degrees by your number that's your ratio
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