How far up does pitman arm go up on steering box shaft?

[Brad H]

Hey All,

Installing one of the vendor’s power steering conversion kits.

While installing my drop pitman arm on the steering box shaft it doesn’t appear to want to slide up any further on shaft while I tighten the lock washer and nut with a large breaker bar. When I take the lock washer and nut off and look at the bottom of the pitman arm the splines are not flush with the bottom of the pitman arm. My torque wrench clicks at 60 ft/lbs at its current position.

Would feel better if all splines were engaged in the pitman arm. What has been your experience? Should I try and tighten the nut more in an attempt to get the pitman arm further up on the shaft and fully engaged with the splines? Or is this normal for these conversion kits?

Thanks for any advice.

 

[Apogee]

That looks about right. It's a tapered fit, so it only goes so far. I can't tell in your picture, but my drop pitman arm was thicker through the splined area than the stock one.

 

[Whoaa]

X2....its a tappered shaft the splined housing of the pitman arm will seat at the depth where its tight according to your nut tourque.

 

[DirtDonk]

Looks about right to me too. But after my first experience with an aftermarket arm, I always check, re-check, re-torque and then do it again after every decent trip of a few miles.
Overkill? Not in my case. I could literally tighten the nut a little tighter after each 10-20 miles, for about two months!!!! Seems that the splines were either not perfect, or the material had some sort of deformation, or what. I don't know but the splines were perfectly clean and I cranked down on it pretty good the first time and every time. But after some action it would inch it's way farther up the shaft until if finally seated properly.
In it's final resting place, it was "maybe" slightly more seated than yours is in the pics, but generally speaking you do NOT want the nut pushing up against splines. So while they can be just barely proud of the arm itself, you want enough clearance with the lockwasher in place so that they are not want proud of the washer.

Bottom line, as long as it's tight, you're good to go. So just like with things you read on the internet, trust, but verify!

Paul

 

[Apogee]

Kind of along the same line of thinking, I would definitely clean/deburr the splines prior to installation, as most of the aftermarket splines are broached and can be a bit rough. A triangle or knife file works well in my experience, and seems to help get a reliable torque the first time. That said, it never hurts to check such things down the road until they repeatably hold torque, as should be common sense given it's your steering.