Does the ball on the pitman arm and the spindle arm have to be 100% round? I am finding that the ball in round "around" the ball but the tops of both have some flatness to them. The pic of the black one, which was painted accidentally is the pitman arm. the other is the spindle arm. Please advise.

Also, do these grooves still look good. It seemed to steer fine when I took it apart, just don't want to install something that needs replacing. Thanks


I realize I need to clean these up, but I didn't want to bother with it if they are considered unusable.

 

Those both look fairly worn. New pitman arms are available, I would replace. The spindle arms are not re-produced, but the ball/stud is. Not the easiest things to replace though......I did a thread on it a while back.
After fixing mine with new parts it steers almost like power steering. Huge improvement!
Got the parts from Dennis Carpenter.

 

The tops of the ***** are ground flat at the factory, if that's what you're worried about.

 

Check the mating surfaces of the cups inside the drag link are. You will want to take it apart and clean it anyhow. They may be worn also but kits are available for the drag link arm. That arm has a burr at the top though that should be filed down. The out of round doesn't look too bad from the pictures. It will give you some variation in effort as you turn the wheel if the pitman arm bearing cups are adjusted properly. The important thing to check is that it won't pop out of the socket on bumps or potholes when the flat spot is against the bearing cups. If you have any doubt, replace it. It is too critical a part.

At least you got yours off the shaft. Here is mine. I had to cut it off. That gave me an excuse to add power steering.





Toyota PS box


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I did a slight grind to the groove that was ground into the pitman arm ball, and sanded and polished it (since the guy powder coated it and wasn't supposed to). I also cleaned up the spindle arm ball and polished it. I used a caliper and just did multiple tests to see where it was. I was actually shocked that it was pretty damn round. I already have the drag link rebuild kit, so hopefully that will snug it all up again. I'll keep you posted.