Centering the steering box

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OLDFARTSDART

OLDFARTSDART

Moe
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Tokeland wa
I had a helper when I took the old pitman arm off and he said it sure steers easy now!!!!! If I count the number of turns stop to stop on the steering wheel and divide in half, how will I know the position of the pitman is right? I know there is four flat spots in the pitman arm splines @ 90 degrees of each other. I must be brain dead and I don`t want to put it together wrong The manual I bought on disk dosen`t address this.:banghead:

Moe
 
..........If ur wheels were pointing straight ahead, center ur steering wheel and put on the arm......u will be right. .....kim........
 
OLDFARTSDART said:
I had a helper when I took the old pitman arm off and he said it sure steers easy now!!!!! If I count the number of turns stop to stop on the steering wheel and divide in half, how will I know the position of the pitman is right? I know there is four flat spots in the pitman arm splines @ 90 degrees of each other. I must be brain dead and I don`t want to put it together wrong The manual I bought on disk dosen`t address this.:banghead:

Moe
Click to expand...

Best way to do it is to put everything together finger tight.
As you know there is keyways on everything.With the steering straight,it will all make sense.I guess you can call it trial an error.
 

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Easy. As you said, count turns, divide in half. Unless you are incredibly poor at math, you cannot possible make a "more than" 45 degree mistake. That is, only one of the keyed splines will put you within reason.

I don't think you an always go by the steering wheel. The column to box coupler only goes on the box one way, but if memory serves, and the coupler has been apart, you can swap it 180, so the steering wheel might be upside down

AND aftermarket wheels might not be keyed, either

So after you get that far, it's a matter of jogging the two tie rod sleeves to move the pitman and center the wheel while keeping the toe in the same. That is, move one sleeve to lengthen, the other to shorten, and the pitman will move while the wheels remain straight

After you get the steering wheel centered, double check the toe.
 
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