I should know the answer to this, but I do not. Will a fast ratio pitman arm be of any benefit in my Valiant, even though it has the standard steering box? @72bluNblu?
It will if you want faster steering. It is longer so I guess you'd need to check for fit and interference, and the RIGHT way to do that would be to have a matching idler. I've no idea on the large vs small spline ??
If it's any consolation, the AAR Cudas and T/A Challengers used the fast- ratio pitman with the standard idler. Not ideal, but was good enough for the factory.There are both spline sizes available. But, to my knowledge, no one makes a fast ratio idle arm for the early A.
If it's any consolation, the AAR Cudas and T/A Challengers used the fast- ratio pitman with the standard idler. Not ideal, but was good enough for the factory.
If you're running headers, I can just about guarantee there'll be interference.
I should know the answer to this, but I do not. Will a fast ratio pitman arm be of any benefit in my Valiant, even though it has the standard steering box? @72bluNblu?
By standard you mean just the regular old 16:1 power steering box right?
On the AAR’s they were used to change the 16:1 power steering boxes to an effective 12:1 ratio. The AAR steering boxes weren’t that different, they had the same ratio as the standard power steering box but if I recall correctly the internal stops were changed because of how the longer pitman changes the throw.
On a standard power steering box they still give the same effective ratio, 12:1.
Check the length of the pitman arm, and see if there is an idler from a bigger bodied car the same length. I put a fast ratio pitman arm on my Challenger, with a PS box. I knew it would do the wopsided turn one way farther than the other thing, so I had a buddy that worked at the parts house look thru the books to see if we could match an idler arm. He found one off of either a later B body like a Cordoba, or a C body. Snatched one off the shelf and it was the same length as the fast ratio pitman arm. This was all back in 90 or 91. If I had it to do over again, I would have left it alone on a PS car. As twitchy as Chrysler PS is anyway....with the longer pitman and idler, you can look at the steering wheel and be half way in the ditch if you ain't watching what you're doing! I'm not sure how it would act on a manual steering car? You might also check to see if anybody makes a longer idler arm for a 67 A body, and see how the length matches up. I think 67 is the only year of later A's that have the same style idler arm bracket as early A's. Maybe that would work if you're lucky enough for them to be available.
I thought the standard manual boxes were 24:1? Is that not the case? Have I been misinfornicated?
I think that would get you back to around 20:1 ratio. Might as well buy a new 16:1 box. Then in the future you have stock replacement pitmans at 1/3-1/4 cost of fast ratio pitmans.
The pitman to headpipe clearance is going to be a big issue to plan for.
what exhaust manifolds or headers do you have?
Most likely it’s not going fit without well thought out custom headpipe.
So then I am correct on the 24:1 ratio?
Manifold. Slant six.
It's sounding like my best bet is to get the 16:1 box.....so do any of yall have a 16:1 manual box and how does it handle particularly at low speeds?
I have a 16:1 manual box in my car. I think it’s great, as you probably know I also run 275/35/18’s up front and +6.5*’s of caster and I can still get around parking lots just fine. Below 10mph or so the steering effort definitely gets a lot higher, but if you plan ahead and don’t try to dry steer it at a standstill it’s ok. I don’t know if I would want to parallel park it everyday but I wouldn’t want to do that anyway.
I’ve got the 16:1 PST box in my 65 Dart 273 V8 I really like it. I didn’t find it much harder to turn than stock, and I’m a skinny arm fellow.It's sounding like my best bet is to get the 16:1 box.....so do any of yall have a 16:1 manual box and how does it handle particularly at low speeds?
I’ve got the 16:1 PST box in my 65 Dart 273 V8 I really like it. I didn’t find it much harder to turn than stock, and I’m a skinny arm fellow.