dropped pitman arm for manual steering box?

danielbuck · Jan 26, 2015

Hello everyone, I have a refurbished manual steering box from a Ranger in my old willys jeep, and I need to find a dropped pitman arm for it. I have been searching and asking around various companies, and nobody seems to make this item, or know of anyone else who does. All I can find are straight, flat arms.

Anyway, I was wondering if any other vehicles used the same spline size on the steering box as the manual ranger box? Maybe I can broaden my search for the pitman arm by looking at other vehicles. The ranger power steering pitman arms are slightly to large to fit on the manual steering box splines. I take it that manual steering on a ranger was not common. Did Broncos, or F100s or anything else use the same smaller splines as the manual ranger steering box? Or any other vehicles?

Thanks,

Daniel

Mark_88 · Jan 26, 2015

I put a manual box on my 96 and the pitman arm was only about an inch dropped...it fit perfectly (still haven't driven it with this change)...this was the original arm that I salvaged off my 88 frame with manual steering (salvaged because I forgot to take it off before they hauled it away)...

I know I saw the arms in a parts catalogue once...but I haven't been looking for about a year so things change.

Brownie Mobile · Jan 26, 2015

Mark_88 said:
I put a manual box on my 96 and the pitman arm was only about an inch dropped...it fit perfectly (still haven't driven it with this change)...this was the original arm that I salvaged off my 88 frame with manual steering (salvaged because I forgot to take it off before they hauled it away)...

I know I saw the arms in a parts catalogue once...but I haven't been looking for about a year so things change.

The op might want to try looking in the catalogues at the part store himself. Ive had a similar situation where the parts store guy couldnt find what i was looking for in a catalogue( a points ignition conversion kit) but i asked him if i could look and found it pretty quick. A lot of the things in there computers arent in the catalogues so id try that.

Earl43P · Jan 26, 2015

http://shop.broncograveyard.com/mobile/4-in-Drop-Pitman-Arm-1976-77/productinfo/12839/

Seems to me that all the early Broncos had manual steering, that's why they offer the ps conversion kits.
Call them and ask.
http://broncograveyard.com/contact.html

Welcome to The Ranger Station!

Where are the PICTURES..........

danielbuck · Jan 26, 2015

Earl43P said:
http://shop.broncograveyard.com/mobile/4-in-Drop-Pitman-Arm-1976-77/productinfo/12839/

Seems to me that all the early Broncos had manual steering, that's why they offer the ps conversion kits.
Call them and ask.
http://broncograveyard.com/contact.html

Welcome to The Ranger Station!

Where are the PICTURES..........

I'm already in email contact with someone at the bronco grave yard.

I'm going to attempt to make the pitman arm work, by cutting off the spline end and making the rest of the arm out of plate steel. I've seen some pretty good examples of this.

This is my little jeep, it's slowly and slowly becoming less and less original jeep, but it's a fun project

Right now I'm working on the new steering, and 4 speed transmission swap.

Earl43P · Jan 26, 2015

Ooh, ahhh....nice details.

Digging the clamps.

danielbuck · Jan 27, 2015

Has anyone compared the splines on a manual ranger box, to an early bronco? Anyone have an early bronco pitman arm handy and can measure the small end of the splines?

danielbuck · Jan 27, 2015

Here's what I have on the splines for the pitman arm that I have, manual ranger box. Anyone have an older manual steering bronco pitman arm handy that they can compare?

I get 1 1/16" (1.02" do be more exact) diameter on the small end of the splines measuring from the valleys. and 1.05" across the flats.

There's 4 flat spots on the splines, at 12:00, 3:00, 6:00 and 9:00 as you hold the arm straight up. 7 spline points between each flat spot (or 8 grooves, if you're counting grooves instead of points)

gjeep9754 · Feb 15, 2015

Have you found a solution yet? I am in the same boat with converting my 4x4 ranger to manual steer.

Have you tried an arm off a Jeep CJ manual saginaw box? Its too much work to pull the one from my jeep to check, but from what i measured on the jeep the sector shaft seems to be very close diameter. What i did notice however is the jeep pitman arm is a little bit longer on the jeep. If a jeep arm fits those are plentiful in all sorts of drops.

danielbuck · Feb 15, 2015

gjeep9754 said:
Have you found a solution yet? I am in the same boat with converting my 4x4 ranger to manual steer.

Have you tried an arm off a Jeep CJ manual saginaw box? Its too much work to pull the one from my jeep to check, but from what i measured on the jeep the sector shaft seems to be very close diameter. What i did notice however is the jeep pitman arm is a little bit longer on the jeep. If a jeep arm fits those are plentiful in all sorts of drops.

Yes, the Cj arm should work, but I actually needed something longer. I ended up talking with a local steering shop, and they modified a steering arm for me.

Mark_88 · Feb 16, 2015

Good to see you found a solution too...apologies but my truck is in the driveway and I wasn't able to crawl under it to take any measures or pics...and finding the old pitman arm would have been interesting with all the snow on the ground covering everything right the way I left it in August last year...

If you have pics of the arm or any other details it might be helpful to someone else somewhere... :icon_thumby:

scrapper · Feb 18, 2015

I used to have a 56 willys. It had the L head, dry rotted 10/15 tires, Would go about 45 top speed , PO had converted it to power steering and you had to drive with both hands. It would crawl over about anything though. I do remember it was a blast, Took my girlfriend for a ride in some mud and the oil pressure gauge tube popped off and got her brand new sneakers covered in oil. We been married about 26 years now. But man that jeep was really a blast to drive around.

dropped pitman arm for manual steering box?

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