Welding Pitman arm.

[Tigerstripe40]

So I am in the middle of a SOA and have run into a bit of an issue.
I have saginaw power steering, and after I noodled the original pitman arm, I got a different one out of a junkyard locally. The pitman arm I am using came from a Ford E450 and used a 1970 F100 tie rod end, which worked great on my SUA cruiser.

Now I am going SOA and using FJ60 axles, All Pro steering arms, and FJ80 tie rod ends.
The 80 series TRE will fit, and seems to match the taper, but the TRE bottoms out and squishes the boot when I put it into the current pitman arm. I **Could** tighten it down and probably be ok. But... Probably is the key word here. *eek*

I went to the local Cruiser Shop (LCS?) today to get a new pitman arm and they had a problem with reaming out the pitman arm to the 80 series TRE taper (drill press bearing was wonky and was wobbling the reamer). They messed up a pitman arm trying to ream it...

I went to a local machine shop to see about getting a shim made and... HOLY s***SNACKS... $140 for a shim as they would have to make it custom. Setup time, programing the machine, etc...

In any case, the E450 pitman arm is much beefier than the others I have seen.

Are these normally cast iron or cast steel?

If cast steel, would it be possible to fill in the hole for the TRE with a piece of steel and my mig welder, normalize it, then drill it out to a pre-selected size, then have it reamed?

I can get a weld in insert to use the 80 series end on the steering arm and use the same pitman arm and TRE I have been using, but feel thats not the best solution.

 

[shawnfj40]

You could weld it but then you would need to heat the whole thing to red and then allow it to cool evenly. The stress created from welding would be relieved by that process. The only way to do it properly would be with a furnace designed for heat treating. You might find a machine shop or weld shop that can do it for you. Not sure of what the cost might be though.

 

[White Stripe]

Did u try the alternator bushing trick? When ppl upgrade to fj60 arms but want to use their smaller fj40 tre's they put a brass alternator bushing in the arm. Maybe it will work in your scenario too.

 

[Cleg]

I would expect the arm to be cast steel or forged steel, not cast iron.
It might accept a weld but I probably wouldn't do it because of the failure mode if it broke.

 

[Downey]

When desert racers modify pitman arms, they then circle around the arm's perimeter with 1/4" to 3/8" diameter round steel bar, fully welded around the perimeter- - - provides fantastic "mass".

 

[Tigerstripe40]

Did u try the alternator bushing trick? When ppl upgrade to fj60 arms but want to use their smaller fj40 tre's they put a brass alternator bushing in the arm. Maybe it will work in your scenario too.

What bushing and for what alternator?
The difficulty here is, the drag link is an 80 series TRE and the pitman arm is for a different size (larger) taper. So I figure the 'old trick' wouldn't work because of that.

I guess I should just wait for the local shop to fix the problem with their drill press and then have them modify a SAE taper arm to the 80 series taper. I am not finding much in the way of properly setup pitman arms from the other 'usual' sources.

the other option I was considering was getting the weld in insert from Trail-Gear, drilling out the old drag link and welding that in. Sucks, though because I already spent the money on a drag link from Marlin.

 

[pb4ugo]

It's a gm starter bushing. I think it's a borg warner part number SB0. you'll have to do a search to confirm the number. Basically you press it into the taper with a vice. I recently had to reverse tapers, we used taper inserts. I think we got them from ruff stuff. his tapers were for gm tre's. I don't know if he has inserts for fj80's. We didn't have to weld them.

 

[White Stripe]

The bushing is like 2 dollars. Its made by BWD. Part number is wierd, it is: SBO as the guy said above. Give it a shot, it might work for you. Most parts stores can get them. If it doesnt work your out 2 bucks. The bushings stretch a lot so it might work.

 

[pb4ugo]

FYI, I think the 0 is a zero, not the letter. I had problems with the parts guy.

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

I weld cast iron, cast steel, titanium, aluminum... heck, I'm working on getting my laser welder to weld aluminum to wood... but I'd never, ever, ever weld cast anything that is a steering component.

Honestly, when it breaks, will you tell the first responders how you saved $140.00 by welding cast? Don't do it.

 

[White Stripe]

I think they have a steel composition that is soft to allow for bending rather than breaking upon impact. I don't see an issue on welding on it if your a component welder and than drill it out. I think ppl get confused with cast iron. Which would make for terrible steering components and dangerous. As far as pitman arm beef, personally I would want the pitman arm to be the weak link. If it bends it just affects lock to lock, not toe. U don't want your sector shaft to be the weak link, that's expensive and much more difficult to fix and disables the vehicle.

 

[shelfboy1]

i have welded many over the years for myself or off road use and never had a problem ,there was even and article in rod and custom magazine several years ago on how to weld them properly ,for street use i dont know .get the folks that screwed it up to pay for it then it wont cost anything

 

[Downey]

Superbuick, some day weld a cast steel pitman arm to a mild steel gusset using mild steel wire and you'll see how smooth it flows/fills/bonds.

 

[Pin_Head]

Pitman arms are forged steel. They aren't that expensive. Just get a new one from your local Ford dealer.

 

[Tigerstripe40]

i have welded many over the years for myself or off road use and never had a problem ,there was even and article in rod and custom magazine several years ago on how to weld them properly ,for street use i dont know .get the folks that screwed it up to pay for it then it wont cost anything

Pitman arms are forged steel. They aren't that expensive. Just get a new one from your local Ford dealer.

My pitman arm is fine, other than the tie rod end taper being too big for the 80 series end.

I was at the cruiser shop to get a new one, and have them taper the new one for the 80 series end but their drill press was messed up so it didn't put the hole in.

I didn't pay for that one, obviously, because it was their tool that caused the issue.

 

[shelfboy1]

good luck hope things work out for you

 

[Howard705]

Weren't all the old RH 40 steering arms for SOA that were fabbed out of 2 welded?? Same thing only smaller. I welded my pittman arm 15 years ago-out of 2. Was overkill and no problems since. This is just filling.

 

[Pin_Head]

Yes, the old school arms for SOA were welded. I haven't heard of any of them failing, but welding will change the local grain structure in the HAZ and lose some of the strength gained from forging.

 

[Mace]

I know of two that have failed, and one that was cracking badly (that was at John Pardi's place in the early 90's)

However, they were all poorly welded and constructed..

I kinda consider it along the lines of "W's" old bent steering arms. Yes it can be done, and failures are an insignificant number in the grand scheme of things. However, it still creeps me out.

 

[Tigerstripe40]

I got an insert for this.
Thanks for the replies.