I have a lowered 36 ford pickup with a 8ba motor/ truck oil pan, Vega steering box I have purchased a few Pittman arms (regular and dropped) and with a little heat and modification I can barely clear the steering arm from the oil pan Does anyone make a longer Pittman arm than the standard I see 6.25” centerline to centerline? Even one inch more would provide more oil pan and ground clearance thanks
Be prepared for a difference, maybe not huge, but you will notice a difference in steering response and effort with a longer arm. No biggie, just saying. Merc pan may be easy solution, not hard to find.
It's directly proportional to the Pitman arm length. 7.25 / 6.25 = 16% quicker steering = 16% heavier steering.
I’ve been looking for a longer one myself for my Saginaw power box, seems the 6.25 is what everybody carries except the 4wd guys, I’ve seen some of those that look longer and have a deeper offset. I don’t have the ability to bend one, no torch or big vise, so I need one ready bent. I haven’t looked much lately, kind of put it on the back burner for now.
I've seen this done and I'm a pretty fair Welder and it's not exactly how I would do it. I built the one on my 32 out of just the broached section of an arm and a piece of 5/8" plate. Cut the splined section off of one arm and turned it to a round piece. Then bored a hole in the plate to receive it and welded it in. Shaped the arm and drilled a hole then used my tapper ream to set the Tie Rod end where I wanted it. Then built the Steering arms to length working out very well for many many years. No reason to be afraid to build steering parts as long as you know what you're doing. I would never **** weld a steering arm together, it's just easier to go at it this way for me.
I've made a several pitman arms from the spline portion from the original arm set into plate as described by @Pist-n-Broke; never had a concern they would ever be problem. Really gives you freedom over the length and shape. On the other hand I cut and spliced a few pitman arms when adding power steering to old road tractors we stretched and doubled the frames on for use with rear load garbage bodies. Maybe a little sketchy; but seemed OK back in the old days; arms were welded properly and never had a problem either. Cut a deep "V" in one arm and a matching "V" in the other for plenty of weld area. Welded and put them in a bucket of sand to cool.
What stops your steering left and right? Is it the limit of the Vega box or are there stops on the steering arms? If it is the box, the longer arm will turn your wheels further (16%?) creating a possible wheel rub or dangerous situation. On the other hand, it will shorten your turning radius. I like the idea of the pan as well. Warren
While I can't speak for the OP; he has a '36 Ford with an axle and Ford axles have steering stops on the kingpin locks that contact the spindle at full lock. Same thing you have on the A roadster PU in your avatar, hopefully.
I hope that is right, but I have seen after market setups with no stop and that was my concern. It was just a cautionary note. Warren
Update! I got a longer Pittman arm from Pete and Jakes (thanks Mike). The longest they could provide was 7” centerline. The new arm works great. Thanks for the advice stroker28!
By chance could you post a part number and a picture of the new arm? I'm thinking that I need to do the same thing for the Whatever project.
Mike, did it look anything like this ? I cut a piece out of the perimeter so the weld path isn't full circle to prevent a shrink crack.
Thanks. I'm just being lazy! Marty suggested what he showed above to me a while back. Guess I'll do some measuring and sums and cyphers to get the effective ratio right and git 'er done! Regardless I'll have to move the steering box a little bit...
Any time a pitman arm is made longer {with no other changes] the steering speeds up} so car turns more with less steering wheel turns. You can fig by using % of added extra! But at the same time,that extra %,also adds that much to any play=so play gets bigger too. That is not a prob most of the time,except if your starting out with a bit too much play already. Food for thought.
I did mine a little different Marty. I did 4 skip welds of equal length of both welds and skips then flipped the arm over and did my welds on side 2 where the skips are on side 1. I also did a pre heat and post heat. After all that I used some J-B weld and sealed the skip points on both sides to keep mother nature from creeping in between the 2 parts. What do ya think? Wish I had thought of boring the hole at the proper angle. I put 2 minor steps in it with my press.
You did fine, as always. The reason we bored these at an angle was, it needed to tip outward quickly, to miss the frame rail.
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