As stated in the thread title, this is a [January] 1966 40 series. I'm a NOOB, so bear that in mind. Steering was not entirely on my radar, but it is now. I have discovered something kind of dangerous and will replace all the involved parts but I want to get to the bottom of why it is the way it is. It just started Friday when I removed a shim on the front leaf stack to try to better sync the front pinion angle with transmission angle, same as I had done on the rear. What I didn't know at that moment, but understand now, is that mod changed the castor angle and the truck steers like crap. OK, I get that and it is easily remedied. Moving on... It got me looking around under there more closely.
What I discovered is that the drag link [tube] is maxed out on both sets of threads where it connects to the pitman arm and the center arm. So much so that where the clamp bears down, there are no threads past the clamp and the tube is deformed (on both ends!!). #Not-good. I got flagged for some "steering linkage" stuff when I had the initial inspection done when I bought the truck, but didn't get that explained at the time. My bad. That may be why it was flagged, or just part of it. In any event, time to replace.
My question is this: since things in the steering system aren't necessarily stretching that much (tie rod ends, tie rod, relay rod, drag link), why is this happening? I found in the records the PO gave me that the steering box was replaced in '08 with a rebuilt one. Is it possible that for one reason or another the pitman arm was put on the wrong spline (rotationally towards the rear of the truck / counterclockwise) so it increased the distance between the pitman arm and the center arm, which then made the drag link effectively too short? Can I take off the big nut on the pitman arm, pull the arm off and rotate it clockwise to shorten that distance? Will that limit steering travel? Or in the process of sourcing a new steering rod and relay rod, I also source a longer drag link to better cover the threads and leave the Pitman alone?
This seems like curing a symptom and not the problem but may work just fine. It is an obvious no no, safety wise, so why did someone leave it like that? It's not like you have options of how long of a drag link you want. FWIW, the steering and relay rod with their associated rod ends do not display so many threads and appear to be in a normal operating range (threads up to and further into the tube from where the slot ends). Since the castor angle is off now and it is decidedly more difficult to steer the truck, I am guessing it puts more strain on the components, so I'd like to solve this mess and put new parts in there and drive it as little as possible- err on the safe side.
As far as I can tell, most of the parts in there appear to be OE or what was available as OE replacement in 2008. Nothing marked by a sticker saying they were made by others. The PO had a metric sh*t ton of work done in 2008, so I imagine what I am looking at was done then. I just bought the truck two years ago, and it is my first FJ.
Thanks y'all.
What I discovered is that the drag link [tube] is maxed out on both sets of threads where it connects to the pitman arm and the center arm. So much so that where the clamp bears down, there are no threads past the clamp and the tube is deformed (on both ends!!). #Not-good. I got flagged for some "steering linkage" stuff when I had the initial inspection done when I bought the truck, but didn't get that explained at the time. My bad. That may be why it was flagged, or just part of it. In any event, time to replace.
My question is this: since things in the steering system aren't necessarily stretching that much (tie rod ends, tie rod, relay rod, drag link), why is this happening? I found in the records the PO gave me that the steering box was replaced in '08 with a rebuilt one. Is it possible that for one reason or another the pitman arm was put on the wrong spline (rotationally towards the rear of the truck / counterclockwise) so it increased the distance between the pitman arm and the center arm, which then made the drag link effectively too short? Can I take off the big nut on the pitman arm, pull the arm off and rotate it clockwise to shorten that distance? Will that limit steering travel? Or in the process of sourcing a new steering rod and relay rod, I also source a longer drag link to better cover the threads and leave the Pitman alone?
This seems like curing a symptom and not the problem but may work just fine. It is an obvious no no, safety wise, so why did someone leave it like that? It's not like you have options of how long of a drag link you want. FWIW, the steering and relay rod with their associated rod ends do not display so many threads and appear to be in a normal operating range (threads up to and further into the tube from where the slot ends). Since the castor angle is off now and it is decidedly more difficult to steer the truck, I am guessing it puts more strain on the components, so I'd like to solve this mess and put new parts in there and drive it as little as possible- err on the safe side.
As far as I can tell, most of the parts in there appear to be OE or what was available as OE replacement in 2008. Nothing marked by a sticker saying they were made by others. The PO had a metric sh*t ton of work done in 2008, so I imagine what I am looking at was done then. I just bought the truck two years ago, and it is my first FJ.
Thanks y'all.
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