What Limits Turning Radius?

Disconnect your steering box pitman. Crank the steering wheel from one lock to the other, count the turns. Set the steering wheel at the mid-point, then with the front wheels also centered, reconnect the pitman.

Also - be very careful when assembling the drag-link internals to get precisely the right order and placement at each end. It is not intuitive. Have the FSM diagram in your hand.

 

It certainly sounds like your Pittman arm is not clocked right. Pete describes doing it exactly how I do it.

 

Any tricks up your sleeves for taking the Pitman arm off and reinstalling it/torquing it while the steering box is still in a vehicle?

 

I think I’m going to try the new drag link that OldTime is sending me before resorting to bending the exhaust.

 

Please follow this procedure first before changing the connecting rod.

To center the steering wheel ….
disconnect the connecting rod (aka drag link) or remove pitman arm from the sector shaft.
Note: There should be alignment marks to locate the pitman arm to the sector shaft.
The Ross sector shaft should be adjusted so you feel a very slight drag when sector shaft is at “true” center of its travel. With sector at “true” center you may remove and reinstall the steering wheel so that the spokes are centered “straight ahead”.

Next align the front wheels “straight ahead”.
The best simple method is to run a string line around each back tire going straight foreword of each front tire. Pull the string line tight and straight with no “bend”. Remember the front axle width is slightly greater than rear axle width so you need compensate for axle width difference by spacing outward where the stringline rubs at center height of each rear tire.
In this way you can be assured that the front tires are exactly parallel with the rear.

Now with front tires parallel to rear tires adjust your tie rods so the bell crank is perfectly in line with the frame.
When all is perfectly straight it’s finally time to set the “toe in”.
Turn each tie rod in exactly 1/2 turn for proper “tow in”.

Now connect your connecting rod from pitman to bellcrank.

Finally adjust steering stops to maximum allowable steering angle for your make of front axle shafts.

 

Use a small puller to remove.

 

Things I know:

The steering wheel is centered to the middle of the sector shaft rotation.

The bellcrank, wheels, and tie rods are all in alignment with the wheels set to straight ahead. The tie rods were then shortened by 1/2 a turn per the “toe in” requirements in the manual.

With that done, I clamped the exhaust to the side and made sure the drag link was oriented per the manual (and all of your comments haha).

I then reattached the pitman arm (after having to pull the whole Ross box again) to be clocked to exactly where the drag link was hanging.

It was one spline off before !

Now the wheels turn freely without maxing out the travel of the Ross box.

I ended up having to swap out the axle stop-bolts with longer ones due to them being a bit too short to be effective. The new ones now stick out about 7/8” in order to keep the Ross box from taking a punishment at the extreme ends of wheel travel.

The faces of the old stop-bolts were untouched and I suspect they weren’t doing a darn thing before (too short) and that might have been why there were chips at the far ends of the worm gear shaft in the steering box.

The exhaust bend is still a problem (probably why the PO flipped the drag link) so I’m hoping OldTime’s new drag link will save me the headache of having to bend the exhaust. Something I’ve never done before.

I feel wwaaaaaayyy better about it now. Thank you for all the help and will update if needed.

 

I can’t imagine it’s good for the little nubs on the sector shaft pressing against the worm gear to take all of the pressure of a turned wheel hitting a curb etc. that, paired with the chance the adjuster screw on the sector shaft was probably not adjusted correctly, would make a good case for wear in that spot. Just my guess.

Either way, the steering box is rebuilt, new pitman arm, rebuilt drag link (and another one on the way), rebuilt bellcrank, new tie rod ends….. I’m excited to see what it’s like to drive once I get it buttoned up again!

hopefully the “clunk” has gone away that I was hearing which prompted me to do all this in the first place!

 

A "clunk" while turning is not often due to slop in the steering gear and linkage which you have just fixed. A "clunk" is usually due to something going on with the axle joints. Since your stops look untouched, I am thinking the axles in it now were not the same kind as when the stops were set.

 

So did centering up everything take care of the tie rod end issue.
FWIW All tie rods should be threaded mostly into the rod itself with perhaps 1/2” of thread showing on each rod end.

 

I actually think it was the bell crank. There was a ton of slop, and it was pretty well worn in the bearings. The sector shaft bushings were also pretty worn in the Ross box.

I also replaced all the bushings in my suspension parts so… Fingers crossed ha ha

 

on most of my vehicles, the tires hitting the frame/springs is the stop point

 

Update: OldTime sent me a replacement drag link that worked out great! Got it installed THE RIGHT WAY and it fits perfect. Thx again everybody!

 

I wonder if the old one was from a flatty?

 

It was for a project he was preparing for to run a Ross system and Dauntless rear dump exhaust, but changed his mind and went with saginaw instead.

 

Haha, yes. Reminded me of searching for a set of matching wheels a few yrs ago, got me to pay attention to the backspace (didn’t even know what it was). I spent time reading various posts, etc. I found some decent wheels both 15” & 16”, most all with a backspace of 3 3/4”, and then I got a 16” wheel with a shorter backspace of only 3 1/4”!! Just for the old skinny pizza cutter tires, but I wondered if the shorter backspace might have an impact on steering tolerances. It only took me a couple yrs to find 4 more! My question is this.
Does that smaller backspace truly make a difference? Or am geometrically challenged?
And is there anyone who knows stuff about these 3 1/4” backspace wheels, I’m interested in any history (are they rare, I only found them one at an time, junkyards etc) and any experienced opinions. Thanks