I have a 67 442 with power steering. I gave my original steering gear to a guy to rebuild it as he specialized in Saginaw gears. I could not get the pitman arm off no matter how hard i tried with a puller. . He said no problem. I gave it to him to rebuild, it was just leaking and a little sloppy. He is about an hour and a half away so he said he would send it to me by a freight company he has used for years. They lost it....... I was so mad because I wanted to keep the original gear that had an "easy steer' spool valve. I found an original used gear off of a 67 Cutlass, but it didn't have a pitman arm on it. I had this one rebuilt by the same guy but we met in person when it was done. I ordered an aftermarket Pitman arm for it. He messed something up in it because it turned 2.5 turns one way and 1,5 turns the other way. He went radio silent! I sent it off to be rebuilt by a reputable company and had it converted to a 3 turn gear. It turns evenly now but I have a problem now that I had with the bad built one. It seems that the Toe-out on turns is way off as the car scrubs the tires on a hard turn and the whole car wiggles. I measured the length of the pitman arm and the idler arm and they are the same. . The only thing that is different from before it was built is the pitman arm. I grew up in an alignment shop but I am baffled. Any advice is welcome.

 

What are your alignment angles set at? Did you adjust the tie rods, or the shims between the control arms and the frame when you replaced the steering gear and Pitman Arm?

 

Nothing of the alignment was changed when I changed the steering gear. The Camber, Caster and toe In were just as they were before the change of the gear. I have installed many gears in my life and never had this problem, but I always used the original pitman arm. I guess the next stop is to the alignment ship just to check the settings.

 

If the number of turns right to left are different, then the steering linkage was not installed correctly, period. You need to disconnect the center link from the pitman arm. Turn the wheel all the way to one side and count the turns to get all the way to the other side. Come back exactly half way. The pitman arm should be pointed directly forward. If not, it is installed incorrectly on the pitman shaft. The splines have four "wide" splines at 90 degree spacing, so it is possible to install the pitman arm on the shaft at 90 deg intervals.

If the pitman arm is correctly installed on the shaft, then the tie rods need to be adjusted correctly so that the wheels are pointed straight ahead when the box is centered. And by the way, when the box is centered, the steering wheel had better be pointed straight ahead, or you have additional problems with wheel and steering shaft alignment.

 

I assume the output shaft from the gear has the flats on it so the pitman can only go on one of 4 ways - which means there's only 1 possible installation.
If the pitman is pointing straight back when installed and there's 1.5 turns one direction and 2.5 turns the other then whoever assembled that box made a major mistake.

 

Instead of assuming, scroll up.

 

OK guys, I have3 been working on cars for over 50 years and know how to install a gear and steering linkage. The original problem was the steering gear was not built correctly. That has been taken care of by having the gear rebuilt properly. I now have equal turns left and right. I am going to get an original pitman arm as that is the only thing that is not original to the car. I appreciate all the recommendations.

 

To be clear, yes, every saginaw output I've seen has 4 flats, but I don't want to make assumptions about this car or anything that might've been modified on it. I've certainly done stupider things than grind out flats when in a pinch.

 

If you did install the pitman arm 90* off, the center link could not be connected to it.