4x4x2 steering box, pitman arm?

[Broncotj0]

I have put a 4x4x2 box on my truck and checkin to see what pitman arm I am supposed to use. I believe it should be my factory arm but i'm not sure. 3 1/2 lift with nuckle over.

 

[RustyShackelfor]

What did the stock arm come off of? power or manual?

 

[Broncotj0]

Factory '75 power

 

[RustyShackelfor]

if it'll fit, use it. I know the manual ones fit but not so sure about the power.

 

[thegreatjustino]

All EB manual arms are the same size and spline count at the box side. Either a manual or power one will work with the 4x4x2 box.

 

[zombie66]

When I did that conversion my pitman arm had a notch on it that fit in a groove on the sector shaft and when i bolted it on my steering wheel it would turn more to the left than to the right when steering. I saw somewhere here that you could file a v into it and adjust your pitman arm to center the steering. If you already knew this never mind what i just said.
when i did mine i thought i just used the pitman arm that came with it. It's been a few years though, but good luck you'll like this steering set up.

 

[bronco-billy-66]

When I did that conversion my pitman arm had a notch on it that fit in a groove on the sector shaft and when i bolted it on my steering wheel it would turn more to the left than to the right when steering. I saw somewhere here that you could file a v into it and adjust your pitman arm to center the steering. If you already knew this never mind what i just said.
when i did mine i thought i just used the pitman arm that came with it. It's been a few years though, but good luck you'll like this steering set up.

All this is true. I had to grind the keys out of my stock '66 pitman arm to get my steering centered. Works perfect now

 

[mattt]

Is it possible to use the stock pitman arm from the 4x4x2 box on an Early Bronco? I imagine the taper where the tie rod attaches is larger than stock EB tie rods since the Big Bronco/F150 had larger tie rods, but other than that will the original pitman arm work?

 

[DirtDonk]

Yes.
The best bet is to keep all the arms handy though. With your tie-rod over setup and lift, where you want your draglink to fall (angle-wise) is still going to depend a lot on what you did with your trackbar. Use whichever pitman arm gets your draglink as close to the same angle of the trackbar as possible.
Actually, re-reading your post I see you said "knuckle over" rather than tie-rod over. So is it still in the stock tie-rod under position then? Just checking to be clear.

Sorry, I know you were looking for a first-hand-experience kind of answer, to save some hair-pulling, but there are so many variables even with the same setup that it's really hard to pin it down to one part absolutely.
But when you give them each a try, let us know which one worked best for your setup. And take plenty of pics so we can see what you did too.
I'm definitely curious how it ends up.

You may still have to re-key the splines anyway. Remember that the one that originally came with the 4x4x2 box used to come off the front and may not have been keyed where you want it to be once it's reversed. I'm not sure if the stock one had a 4-position layout (key-splines every 90°) or just a single key, but you might still have to modify it to lay just to the driver's side of center, like the EB was setup.

Paul

 

[DirtDonk]

Oops! Sorry guys. I see I was talking to two separate people there. Hopefully at least one of you, mattt, and Broncotj0, got something out of that.

Paul

 

[Nightstick]

Okay wait! I'll be using a 4x4x2 box and 3.5" lift. Are y'all saying I don't need a drop pitman arm? Just some slight mods done to the factory arm? (74 manual steering box on it now)

 

[mavereq]

you may or may not need a drop pitman arm. that depends on your trackbar location. i would think you'd need a drop pitman arm for a 3.5" lift but i'm not sure. i mounted my 4x4x2 box 1.5" lower on my frame than what the directions called for.

 

[mattt]

Paul, thanks for the reply. Basically what I was asking is can the original pitman arm be turned around 180* and used as long as the drag link & track bar angles are close.

 

[DirtDonk]

Yeah, got that. So my first line was just a simple "Yes" to answer that question. But then I embellished it a bit too much perhaps. Just wanted to cover all bases though, regarding keeping all your options open so you can have the best setup by using whichever arm suits your rig the best.

So mattt and Nightstick, yes, it should be fine, other than the aforementioned potential issues with your upper draglink end maybe not fitting perfectly and the keyed splines not allowing the arm to point in the correct direction, when the box is centered, without filing them down.
In other words, you can use the arm in any direction because there are 360° of splines, but you might still have to modify things in one way or another to work "correctly."
As usual here, the OEBR (Official Early Bronco Rider) applies. What's that you ask? Just this... "Your Results May Vary" is all.

From the sounds of it, many are using the original 4x4x2 arm and not having any trouble.

Back in the day ALL aftermarket pitman arms for the Early Bronco were from something else. And all of those were full-size trucks. So they would all have had the same tapered hole in them as the arm that came with your full-size truck steering box and supposedly be used with the stock EB draglink.
I don't have personal experience with using the stock EB draglink with any of those though, since by the time I needed a dropped pitman arm, I already had shortened full-size F150 tie-rod and draglkink for my disc brake conversion. But I still had to modify the master-splines on every one to get them to work. I bought and tried four different brands of pitman arm until I found the one that best matched the angle of my dropped trackbar. Rancho, Trailmaster, Superlift and Skyjacker were the only weapons of choice at that time.

As mentioned either here or in another thread, the tapered hole has the same degree of taper no matter what (7° I think?), but the depth and diameter of the hole will dictate whether you can use your stock EB draglink without concern. And you may or may not have to file down the master splines so that you can orient the arm just exactly where you want it.

See? With Broncos, nothing is etched in stone, except that nothing is etched in stone.

Paul

 

[Pedestrian]

The stock pitman arm from my donor 4x4x2 box had a slight twist to angle towards the tie rod. When the arm was installed 180 the angle was wrong for the Bronco application. Just reuse the stock EB manual arm.

 

[Pedestrian]

Okay wait! I'll be using a 4x4x2 box and 3.5" lift. Are y'all saying I don't need a drop pitman arm? Just some slight mods done to the factory arm? (74 manual steering box on it now)

No drop pitman needed.
I am running the 4x4x2 box with the factory manual arm on a one ton tie rod over steering setup, works great. I do have the track bar riser on the axle instead of the track bar drop bracket on the frame.

 

[DirtDonk]

There you go then. First hand experience trumps second hand suppositions every time.

Paul