Pitman arm spline alignment - steering wheel crooked

[SteveH]

I replaced the cruddy, worn out '555' brand pitman arm on my '94 22RE 4Runner with a cruddy Chinese 'DriveTech' pitman arm from Advance Auto. The splines on the new pitman arm were cut in a slightly different clocking than those on the previous arm. This means that after installing the arm, I cannot get the steering wheel to point straight ahead - I can have it off center one way or the other.

The truck does not need a wheel alignment, else, I'd let a shop fix this.

So, I installed the new pitman arm, pointed the truck wheels straight ahead, and then removed and reinstalled the steering wheel so that it was straight.

Is this the correct/best way do fix this problem? Unlike an FJ40, there is no drag-link adjuster sleeve that allows you to fix steering-wheel alignment while leaving the wheel alignment ok.

Thanks! - Steve

 

[WarDamnEagle]

Yes..

 

[Sam Stewart]

That's what I did on mine.

 

[SteveH]

Thanks!

 

[bryan89]

same thing happened to mine when i bombed the original equipment pitman on a trail in NC.

i swapped in a 555 part as well.
i was told they were a higher quality Japanese replacement part, versus most of the cheap crap you get from china / taiwan. almost as good as OEM.
why do you think it was "cruddy"? did it not last very long or something?? i hope i didnt spend $60 on garbage.

anyway...yeah same deal with the alignment on mine. im pretty sure there are no steering stops built into the steering box like some rigs, so you can just remove the wheel and put it on straight. it will not effect how far you can turn in either direction. the steering stops on the a-arms control that. this theory is also supported by the fact that there are no alignment marks on the steering column for the wheel to go on. it just simply doesnt matter. whatever is straight is good.

 

[SteveH]

I was mostly being a wise guy.

I suspected the '555' part is cruddy because some of the FJ40 '555' stuff is not the best, and because this is a 4 cyl 4Runner with 200K that has never been offroad or used hard, and this is at least the 2nd pitman arm (1st one was OEM) that is toast. I only paid $34 for the 'driveworks' cheapie one. I figure it should outlast the truck. OEM was $108 and that didn't make sense for this truck, IMO.

Thanks for your observations on the steering box and stops.

 

[bryan89]

oh. no worries.
good luck with the truck.

 

[yeast]

I replaced the cruddy, worn out '555' brand pitman arm on my '94 22RE 4Runner with a cruddy Chinese 'DriveTech' pitman arm from Advance Auto. The splines on the new pitman arm were cut in a slightly different clocking than those on the previous arm. This means that after installing the arm, I cannot get the steering wheel to point straight ahead - I can have it off center one way or the other.

Steve,
I bought the same replacement pitman arm. Do you remember which way rotating the pitman arm rotated the steering wheel? I'm way off (around a quarter turn to the right), and want to adjust the pitman arm on the steering box to correct this.
Also, did you have any trouble getting the DriveTech pitman arm to seat fully onto the steering box? Mine doesn't want to slip all the way up, even if I tap in it with a hammer, or torque the 32mm nut with an impact gun.