Just got a 4 inch drop pitman arm and I wanted to know if this is enough clearance. It's at full lock as if turning to the right




The tape measure pic is basically worthless you can faintly make out the 4 inch mark at the lowest point it's more like 3 1/2 inches of clearance.

 

Anyone?? .

 

If your pitman arm is reamed from the bottom I doubt it. But your setup is different. For me doing crossover I didnt have enough room for the drag link and end. I was also using something like a 2.5" drop.

 

So your saying a should find a 2 inch drop arm instead of the 4. Well didn't blow too much cash then, the arm was only 25 bucks

 

Every app is different but if your pitman arm is reamed from the bottom you won't have a lot of room for the draglink. I'm assumin your doing a crossover setup. You might get te drag link hooked up but I would think the spring could hit it in the right situation.

 

I've also been thinking about building my own drag link with Dom and drill out the pitman arm to run a bolt through so I can use heim joints

 

I dont think I would use Heims on the street. Maybe someone else will confirm but I heard they tend to wonder a little bit on the road kinda making you chase after it.

 

Heres my setup, I used a 78-79 4wd gear box and the steering shaft along with a tilt column. I wanted this setup because I had rubbing issues with the power assist with big tires so Saginaw would have been worse. My drag link will be here Thursday.

 

This is what mine looks like. Currentally the pitman arm is to short or i need to go to inverted t because the wheels dont go far enough back and forth. It turns worse then my dads longbed crew

 

Better picture

<a href="http://s1214.photobucket.com/albums/cc484/Alex_Neils/My%20truck/?action=view&amp;current=steering2.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1214.photobucket.com/albums/cc484/Alex_Neils/My%20truck/steering2.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

 

I think you guys should trade pitman arms

 

I would turn the box down some (clockwise) and raise it up some for better angles on the pitman arm and steering shaft. You can heat the pitman arm up and bend it some if the box can't be moved now.

 

Either that or he should tell me where he got his.... that way I can unbend it to make it longer that's exctallly what I need

 

Late to the party on this thread but I'll join...

Info & side rant on this...
If you want to know for sure why not just cycle the suspension???? It always amazes me why people are too lazy to do things right. I know, I know it takes time... I cycled my setup a few times to check clearances on everything.


What you have to do is break the leaf pack down so just the main leaf is there, with a block of some sort underneath it to make up for the height of the removed leafs. Bolt the axle to the setup and jack the front end "up", compressing the front suspension until it hits the bumpstop (another thing people never take time to set up right) and check clearances then.

Here's a couple pics of my setup when I was looking at steering box clearance at full bump, full lock and then also looking at my bumpstop location. With stock bumpstops and stock springs the spring didn't hit the bumpstop until it was in a major negative arc. so I lowered them...

Suspension cycled at full bump to check how much to drop the bumpstop


Cycling


Tire test at full bump, full lock - it just clears. Bumpstops were set so there was still 1/2" clearance here with the rubber bumper compressed to 75% of it's original height.



This is what I am doing.


Never heard the "they wonder a bit" thing on heims - just that people think they wear too fast, or get worn, loose nasty too quickly in areas that have severe weather or salted roads. After talking to people who have run them here (Southern California) I will be running them.


Here's my stock dodge pitman arm (in my hand) compared to the Scout II (on the box) one I bought to try and clear the 4wd cross member a bit more.


After getting it, it seems the thing may be a bit too long (keep in mind a longer pitman arm will change your steering "quickness" ratio) and I'm now thinking I'm going to weld some platework on the end of the Dodge pitman arm to lengthen it and convert it to a double shear setup.

 

I NEEED THAT PITMAN ARM!!!!!!!!!!! That would be perfect!! And it wont even add quickness because the box doesn't even turn the wheels all the way. Would you be interested in selling the scout arm??? And will it be able to be tapered out to the standard Chevy TRE?