Hey Guys,
My rig is a '76 FJ40 that was my daily driver and weekend off-road toy for about 10 years and then sat under a tarp in my backyard for almost 10 years. I got her out of mothballs last spring and started to work on her. I rebuilt the knuckles and am in the process of installing a mini-truck power steering conversion (thanks Georg for the parts). As part of the steering work I removed all the tie rods, cleaned, painted and re-lubed everything. I did not alter any of the tie rod lengths. All the time I drove her in the past I never checked or changed the toe-in or any tie rod ends although i checked things out for wear or looseness when I greased things.
Before removing the old manual box and tie rods I did not note the position of the pitman arm. I installed all the cleaned and lubed rods with the wheels centered , the new power steering box centered and the steering wheel centered. The pitman arm came out angled back about 15 to 20 degrees from vertical, rather than vertically like my stock '78 pitman is. I checked the lengths of all three rods, tie, relay and drag link:
Rod FSM Standard lengths
My rig is a '76 FJ40 that was my daily driver and weekend off-road toy for about 10 years and then sat under a tarp in my backyard for almost 10 years. I got her out of mothballs last spring and started to work on her. I rebuilt the knuckles and am in the process of installing a mini-truck power steering conversion (thanks Georg for the parts). As part of the steering work I removed all the tie rods, cleaned, painted and re-lubed everything. I did not alter any of the tie rod lengths. All the time I drove her in the past I never checked or changed the toe-in or any tie rod ends although i checked things out for wear or looseness when I greased things.
Before removing the old manual box and tie rods I did not note the position of the pitman arm. I installed all the cleaned and lubed rods with the wheels centered , the new power steering box centered and the steering wheel centered. The pitman arm came out angled back about 15 to 20 degrees from vertical, rather than vertically like my stock '78 pitman is. I checked the lengths of all three rods, tie, relay and drag link:
Rod FSM Standard lengths