Pitman Arm

[phils]

I am moving the axle forward (spring behind axle setup) on a 1947 fordster. The pitman arm that someone fabricated for this car is not going to work now. The ball joint on the swedge / drag link that attaches to the pitman arm sits horizontal. (see pic, sorry drag link should be attached to the spindle arm, not sitting on floor). When the axle was much further back in it's 'stock' location, this worked just fine as it was pretty parallel with the tie rod. Now I would either need to extend the pitman arm forward 6" (hate that idea)....or I'm thinking it would be best to have a NEW pitman arm that came off the box, dropped at an angle to clear the oil pan, then flattened out with a almost parallel to the ground flat side so the ball joint can enter in from the bottom of the arm in a VERTICAL position.
I'm running a Saginaw gearbox / power steering setup. Any insights for an ideal candidate from the junk yard for the pitman arm?

 

[chopper tom]

mabie try speedway they sell a lot of pitman arms ,check the dirt track catalog too .Sometimes the local dirt race track is a good place to get some answers like tat too.just a thougt? i have some good friends from the dirt world who come up with some good suspention idias some times ,they seem to try a lot of diffeant things .

 

[PA41]

You can fab up your own if you need to.

Cut and bend the right shape arm from 3/8 steel, cut the holes off the old arm and round them up and use them as captured bungs in the fabbed arm.

Burn it in hot using low hydrogen rod.

Do it right.

PA41

 

[fuzz]

Not real sure I understand what the problem is. You're tie rod end at the pitman arm is "binding" because it's too far from the attaching point at the steering arm on the right spindle? If so, you can heat and bend the pitman arm til the eye is horizontal. Pitman arms by gm are not cast and can be bent without damage if you're careful. As p41 says you can cut the eye off and weld it back on in the correct position.

 

[phils]

dropped pitman arm

What is happening is the ball joint movement is 'binding', only when it is pushing the drag link against the spindle arm. If the ball joint that attaches to the 'fabricated' pitman arm on the car now, was in a horizontal postion, I would not have the binding.

I was just wondering if anybody has ever used or found something like what the aftermarket 4-wheelin' guys use when they lift the truck...'dropped' pitman arms (ex - see pic). This would work slick in my application by clearing the oil pan......but don't know if the splines are the same on one end or the ball joint would work for the ford 7 degree taper ball joints......hoping maybe somebody has been down this road before with these Saginaw gearboxes...and this may have been a quick & simple solution.