I have looked and done many a search. I have looked at vern tardels books, but still dont have a clear answer. The pitman arm needs to be reversed to work. I know i still need to file out the groves to fit on my F1 box. I cant turn the pitman arm because it is tapered and fits only the way its shown. I bought it on line from a guy who said it was an F1 arm. Number on the arm is 8C-3590. I believe it to be correct. Everything shown is mock up, nothing is ready for prime time, i am just getting things lined up and in order here. I have read: Heat up the ball and turn it-Can that really be done? Have the arm tapered the other way-not sure who will do that, Modify the drag link and pitman arm to accept a tie rod end. What is a novice to do? Any and all welding related to steering (as needed) will be done by a professional, not me. Thanks
Can't use that pitman arm because later F100 arms have a parallel spline and a clamp bolt. The earlier F1 arms have a tapered spline and are secured with a nut and washer ..... p***enger car arms also fit these model steering boxes but they have a conventional tie-rod end hole detail.
Drill out the ball ,insert new ball from opposite side This is modified A box with shortened A pitman arm and stock drag link
If you can find a 33 or 34 arm it will bolt on with no mods (except maybe file out the solid splines so you can adjust a notch forward or back). If you find a 32 arm it should work, but they use a ball stud that is held in with a nut. Usually the balls are worn and need replaced anyway, so this might be the best option. Or, you can find any arm from any Ford p***enger car from 35-48. The taper of the small hole might be the wrong direction, but all you need to do is find a fella with a 7 degree reamer and taper that hole halfway from the other side. Then the ball stud will fit in like it was made for it. Be aware that since your drag link is not adjustable for length, you might not get your steering box centered when the wheels are pointing straight ahead. If this is so, you will not have a comfortable time driving the car because all steering boxes are made with a spot at exact center to help it stay straight down the road. If you are always to one side of that (drag link too long or short pushed your sector too much left or right) you won't have optimal control.
OK, all good info thanks. Here is a picture of the other end of mine for what its worth. Can i "find a fella with a 7 degree reamer and taper that hole halfway from the other side" on my f1 pitman arm? That will work right? This poses a new question, If this does happen, what is the answer? To get an adjustable drag link, do i go the tie rod way? Or is there a part from other car/trucks that will fit right on? Thanks
I personally wouldn't cut the ball off your current arm and attempt to drill a hole in it. Like I said, any pitman arm from any Ford p***enger car from 32-48 will fit those splines. If you get lucky and find a 33-34 you are done. Half the other ones will have the 7 degree taper pointing the correct way for you to bolt in a ball stud. The other half will just need a little reaming. Mail it to me and I'll do it for you. As for the drag link, if you lower the car any it might affect the needed length of the drag link. It will probably be too long or short by a fraction of an inch. Might not be noticeable in the steering, but it might. Give your current one a try, but if you don't get a good feel, you have a reason why. If I needed an adjustable drag link but wanted the old style ends, I'd get a couple ends from a tie rod, a new repro rod, and have a machinist cut it to length and rethread one end. Beware the original tie rods are thin walled with a bung in the end. Pretty sure most of the repros are thicker so cutting them to a shorter length won't affect the strength.
I have a 1946 car pitman arm. How do I could adapt the pitman with a hole onto the Model a drag. I would need to have it threaded by a machine shop and find a tie rod end to fit. or have my 46 drag turned down and threaded right? or is there an easier way?.
I have seen where guys would heat the pitman arm to cherry red using oxygen/ac, then twist the arm 180 degrees and let it cool slowly. Is it safe? I don't know, but many say yes. Those forgings are tough. Edit: found a pic on this thread:
I need to look into this, i bet my 46 drag link is hollow so i dont think i can adapt it that easily.
I took a cross link rod, shortened it and re tapped, worked great as the F1 pitman is a bit different angle if you dont cut the splines out to allow it to reclock. I drilled up on the pitman arm to correct the steering drag link angle as stock location deemed to be too low so 1" up solved my issues. I did the drill and tapper style ball with nut, this way the heat treat on the pitman isnt sacrificed and you retain more strength than welding.
https://thirdgenauto.com/product/1932-1933-1934-ford-drag-link-and-tie-rod-end-ball-stud/ This will fit in the small end of any 32-48 pitman arm. It should point to the middle of the car, so your stock drag link will fit on it.
What a great answer. I am glad i have the 1946 car i am parting out. You should have written "the book" from all i read on this forum from you. Thanks for offering to taper my F1 pitman arm and for such an easy way out of this.
i took off the 1946 pitman arm from the parts car, that has been tampered with at some point. It had been welded and reverse reamed. So that does not help. I do like the look of the twisted pitman arm. Same could be done with the drag link I guess. But is it strong enough? I can do either of these, the question is strength. Which is the same question i ask with my next statement. Why not cut the link, Drill some plug welds on each side, taper the joint between the two rods, slide in a 7/16" rod and have a pro weld it? I thought speedway carried rods, but the chances of it being correct length is small. And it is not period correct. I will look So now i have four additional options. Comments? Thanks
Another thought is to take a model a tie rod, cut it to length, then i have the ability to adjust it. Use same procedure as above in welding the cut.
Both the drag link and the tie rod are solid steel rods from Brattons.com that’s what I had planned on using I will have to shorten my tie rod about 2” and won’t know about drag link until final ***embly
Just last month a HAMBer wrote a thread about driving his 34 coupe and the tie rod that the previous owner had cut and welded came apart. There’s no way in hell I’d cut and weld the tube on a drag link or tie rod. If you do, please post your pics so the expert welders here can have a look before you drive it.
OK No welding. It would have been done by a professional, but still no. No heating and bending. So my two options i like are: 1. Cut my spare Model A tie rod, and re thread the right hand thread side. 2. Find a better 1942-1946 pitman arm and buy it, then add on the ball stud as mentioned earlier.
Find any p***enger or light truck pitman from 32-48. Your options are 16 years and multi millions worth of Ford cars and pickups. You might get lucky and find a 33-34 and you only need to bolt it on. Or any other will use the bolt on ball stud. Some might need the reverse taper though. But all of those will fit on your F-1 steering sector.
As mentioned before you can get a 28-34 tie rod and cut the right hand threads off, then rethread to any length you want and turn the ends as you need them to be.
The threads on A & B tie rods are not a standard SAE size. Can't remember the size; but dies were readily available from an industrial supply house when I checked a while back.
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