When Jimmy was swapping to manual steering on his brother's Johnny's Comet...the puller from Auto Zone was to fat to fit between the pitman and the gear box. We ended up using my K-D puller.
so i got ahold of flaming river and asked if they had man center link,pitman,idler available. nope they dont, cat said not even a gear box car parts is sending me a catalog of what they have
Well, I went and got the manual parts installed on my front end. Much better, didn't realize how much play there was not using the right parts, i.e. power steering rack with no pump. One warning, if you have headers, we had to loosen the steering gear bolts to get enough room to use the pitman arm puller. Thanks to all who "steered" me in the right direction on the proper components to be using
Well I have got this power to manual project almost done. I have a few concerns. The pitman arm doesnt meet up flush with the centerlink. There is a space and I cant tighten the nut anymore. I have the same problem with the pitman arm to the steering box. I can tighten the castle nut enough on the center link to get the cotter pink in. Any thoughts? Thanks
I though you was changing from power to manual? I'm feeling a little lazy today and don't want to read through 5 pages of post to find out if you changed the power steering pitman and idler to manual steer pitman and idler to go with your manual centerlink, or the other way around...manual steer parts over to power steering parts
It is power to manual my bad. Long day. What i am talking about is the idler arm seating to the center link and the other end of the pitman seating to the steering box. I just want to know if they are not seated all the way is this going to matter?
Apart from being on wrong what would make it not seat right? Do I need an impact to get it tightened down? I am pretty sure it is on correct. Thanks...
Sounds like you have a wrong part somewhere in the swap. Do you have a 4-lug parts going to 5-lug parts? Can you post a picture?
I will be able to post a few pictures when I go out there tomorrow. So you are saying that I might have the wrong center link? This has turned into a nightmare.
I will post pictures soon. I didnt know the center links were different for manual from year to year.
I checked the part numbers and the 70-74 centerlink, pitman and idler is the same on both 6 and 8 cylinder. 75-77 centerlink, idler, and pitman has a different part number. The power steering pitman is the same 70-77. I don't know what changes were made between 74 and 75 but they are different numbers. Only other thing I can think of is you trying to put the centerlink on upside down and the tapered holes are preventing it form fitting...don't know until we see a picture
