If you want to swap to manual gearbox you'll need saginaw 525 pitman arm.

[proz07]

During my build I deiscovered when swapping to the OEM ford manual steering gear box that they no longer make the pitman arm... well crap. After a bunch of surfing here i found a bunch of arbitrary posts about possibly a saginaw box or pitman arm etc.

Well heres the run down if you want to swap to a manual gearbox and need a pitman arm you can get a saginaw 525 piman arm 36 spline will bolt up. Throw distance and bend is up to you to find. From what i understand there are metric GMs that came with saginaw boxs etc. I ended up gettting a borgsen http://www.jegs.com/i/Borgeson/153/806003/10002/-1 It doesnt say much about it but it looks to have the ford 7 degree taper as well. Reason i went with this is its longer than the ford arm but its just plate steel that i can bend if needed or re drill and tap for the correct length i need.

I first picked up a Vega 6.5" on center pitman from speedway motors on accident as i thought it was the 525 but it wasnt. So i have some pics to show the difference between a vega and saginaw 525 pitman. The vega is a 36 spline 1" straight shaft. Where the saginaw is a tapered shaft something like 1.05" start to 1.15". The vega wouldnt even try to fit the gearbox.

Vega is the cast and the saginaw is the plate steel pitman. In the last pics you can see both have the 7 degree double taper for top or bottom tie rod placement. But with my OEM tie rod they arent any where near deep enough to actually mount securely, so im waiting for my taper ream from speedway to re ream appropriately. Now these are both universal pitmans, not a specific make model version so that may be why the tie rod isnt perfect for my 88.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Interesting.
They also make a 7" long one that might be usable after being bent [or cut and welded] instead of the fa600 arm. $77.00 is pretty cheap too.
Thanks for posting.

 

[proz07]

Yeah i think the oem one is 5" on center. i went 6 for a little extra throw yet still able to redrill and tap for shorter if i dont like it.

 

[adsm08]

You did fail to answer one very important question.

Why would you want to go to manual steering if you already have power steering?

 

[Cody L]

I'm converting to manual steering on my 2wd to reduce weight, lower parasitic drag on engine, and remove leaks and noise.

Sent from my SM-N920R4 using Tapatalk

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Why would you want to go to manual steering if you already have power steering?

Yeah, I forgot it was manual when I mentioned the fa600. It gives me hope that there is a similar product for power boxes. If someone knows the tooth count and diameter for the power box off hand, post up.

As far as manual boxes go, I prefer them for drag racing as I think they give me more feel. I could also see them being good on a 4 cylinder truck for the same reasons Cody L mentioned.

 

[proz07]

I need the room to fit a 5.3l.