Pitman Arm Install

[Russ McElwee]

1971 Mach 1 with Power Steering. Am installing a new Pitman Arm on a new Power Steering box. Have centered, cleaned and checked the splines on both the pitman arm and the power steering but the arm will only go onto the spline about half-way. Even when using a 1/2 drive on the nut. Is the Pitman supposed to go all the way up the splines or is it normal for it to only go about half-way?

 

[Hemikiller]

There's only a thread or two showing when it's torqued to spec. Pic of mine.

 

[timachone]

There's only a thread or two showing when it's torqued to spec. Pic of mine.

View attachment 60497

+1

 

[Bentworker]

This is what mine looks like

 

[71ProjectJunk]

Mine only has a couple of threads showing too.

 

[droptop73]

Yup, similar here. Last year when working on the front end I noticed that and tried to get it to go on further without success.

 

[giantpune]

The splined male and female parts are tapered.

You orient the pitman arm on the splines the correct way and install the nut and washer, do not use anti-seize. Then you torque the nut and it forces the taper surfaces together tighter and tighter. The torque values I got from redhead with my new steering gear are 160-180 ft/lb. You dont use an impact on it because that doesn't let you monitor how much torque you're giving it. If the pitman arm gets pushed up the point where its coming off the other end of the splines, then something is worn out or out of spec and needs replaced.

With a new pitman arm and a new steering gear, and the nut fully torqued, I have maybe a quarter inch of exposed splined section up above the pitman arm on the fattest part of the shaft.