Broken Pitman Arm?

Just out of curiosity, how many of you have ever broken a pitman arm?

Luckily I was trying to pull out of a parking spot and not turning in a major intersection when my pitman arm decided to takes its own life last week. The ball snapped right off. It was a brand new one that was purchased when I rebuild the jeep in '09. I know I've got a little bigger tires that stock (31"), but come on. I talked to Carl Walck and Brent Mullins, and neither one of them have heard of that happening, especially on a new one

 

Ross box pitman? Another of Walack's "preferred vendor" items?

I have never experienced that type of failure. Cracked bell cranks is another story.

Any chance Debella has NOS?

 

I broke a pitman arm on a Saggy box. All pitman arms are not created equal. I replaced mine with one form Parts Mike and it's extremely
beefy. The one I broke I think came from 4 Wheel Parts, not positive though. Skip the $30+ dollar one and buy the $70 ish one. Fortunately for me one of the guys I was wheeling with had a spare pitman arm with him when I broke mine.

 

Hate to hear it Matt. Good thing you weren't going down the highway!! I just put new bearings in mine and didn't even think to look for cracks. If you buy a heavy one shoot a pic of it so I can compare the two.

 

Hey buddy, haven't seen you in a while. How's the weather way over there in Ruston, lol? I moved a couple years ago off of north Airline. I may be starting a new project at the Lincoln courthouse soon, we should get together.


I've got a Ross system. They have a bell crank on the fame and a pitman arm on the gear. The ball on the pitman arm broke off. I ordered an NOS one from Brent Mullins. He sells all the old army jeep parts and this one is a cross over to an M38A1 steering gear. If you have never been over to his warehouse, it's like a Sam's club full of surplus MB/GPW/M38/M38A1 parts. He charged me $55. I want to say I spent $30 last time, but that was back in 09 when candy bars were a nickel.

If I didn't already pay to re-route my exhaust for the second time (still driver's side forward dump), have a PTO winch and v6 motor, I'd "can" this Rube Goldberg of a steering system and go to Saginaw. I looked at Herm's frame bracket kit and steering tube redo, but I still don't have the space for it. I'd have to move all the brake lines by the frame too.

 

Let me know when you get over this way. We'll go to lunch or something. Still working on a carburetor issue, maybe I'll have it figured out by then.

 

Will do, good to hear from you. PM me your # again, I got a new phone some time back and I don't think I have it anymore

 

MD! I would have had the same issue as yourself, but I replaced mine out a while ago with a steering arm that was NOS for the heavy duty ross box. From all the research I have done, the 4 cyl. and the 6 cyl. took different arms...but only one is in production. Don't know if that will help, PM if you need me to elaborate.