Pitman arm a no go on new steering box
#1
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Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Maryland
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Car: 1983 camaro z28
Engine: 350
Transmission: t5
Pitman arm a no go on new steering box
As the title says I picked up a reman box and went to install the pitman arm and....no go. Pulled the box out to try and install pitman arm on the bench, no go. Had a neighbor measure the flat spots on the output shaft as well as the pitman arm. Diameter of the pitman is .01 smaller than the shaft. Cleaned up the pitman arm splines with a file and still absolutely nothing. Pitman arm came off great a few days ago with the puller, no problems at all. Even went to the parts store to try fitting pitman arm onto a different box, same problem. Do you guys have any suggestions on where to go from here? New pitman arm or return the box and try a different outlet? Would it be wild to take both pieces to a machine shop and see if they can work something out??
#2
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Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Maryland
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Car: 1983 camaro z28
Engine: 350
Transmission: t5
Re: Pitman arm a no go on new steering box
So after much digging, it looks like 2 different pitman arms may have been available on our cars. The steering box I pulled off had a ring retained housing with an output shaft diameter of 1 1/8 inch where as the 4 bolt housing output shaft is 1 1/4 inch. This would explain my pitman arm not fitting onto the new 4 bolt box. It looks like napa has a ring retained box I can order and get in 24 hours. Not sure if I want to go back to ring retained box, or buy a pitman arm off of ebay. The only problem with buying the pitman arm off ebay is that I'm nervous I could get stuck with the same smaller arm.
#3
Supreme Member
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Re: Pitman arm a no go on new steering box
There are so many variations of our box that getting a reman box can be a crapshoot. Send your original box to these guys:
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/susp...ering-box.html
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/susp...ering-box.html