Pre 84 Trucks 1st gen pickups

Cross over steering alignment

Old May 8, 2011 | 05:17 PM
  #1  
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Cross over steering alignment

I know it's been covered and I've read 4Crawlers writeup. I am just stuck with one thing.
First some background info.
I have is that I bought my TG hi-steer kit from someone used, but had never been installed, which is great, but I've had trouble with the pitman arm.
There is no marks to align the pitman arm with the steering box.


There is no way to line it up so the tick aligns down the center of the pitman arm, it's either 1 side or the other, I've tried both.
The way I have it now seems to work best, I can turn it from steering stop to steering stop and by adjusting the draglink I even got the steering wheel in the center by adjusting the draglink. I've got the toe in at 1/8th of an inch. It tracks down the road as straight as an arrow.

I didn't know where to put the steering shaft onto the new steering box, so I just put the bolt through across place in the splines where there is a machined out spot that looked like a bolt should fit past it without touching the splines. Don't know if anyone knows what I am talking about, I can go pull it apart and take a picture if needed.

Finally, here is my problem.
It takes 2 turns of the wheel to get to the steering stop in 1 direction and 2 1/2 turns to the other stop.
Should I A:
Fiddle with moving the pitman arm 1 spline at a time and see if that changes anything.
B:
Take the steering shaft off the box and turn it 1/4 of a turn and then adjust the draglink to get it straight again.
C: Am I missing something here?
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Old May 8, 2011 | 05:18 PM
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I am pretty sure that larger mark in the pitman arm is just a casting mark
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Old May 9, 2011 | 04:47 AM
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Steering wheel/shaft is the easiest to adjust. Center the steering, remove the shaft, rotate it, reinstall.

:wabbit2:
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Old May 9, 2011 | 05:23 AM
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So first split the difference that the wheel is off from full lock to full lock by adjust draglink, then remove wheel and recenter.
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Old May 9, 2011 | 05:44 AM
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Yep. Center the steering lock to lock by adjusting whatever you need to adjust. Then just remove steering shaft and turn steering wheel until it looks centered and bolt it back up. Done it dozens of times.

:wabbit2:
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Old May 9, 2011 | 06:28 AM
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Thanks wabbit, just wanted to check before I wasted more time with the pitman arm
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