Dropped Pitman Arms

[Tim]

For those of you with Saginaw steering and contemplating new springs to lift the vehicle, here are some tidbits I discovered in my attempt to correct the steering linkage. Not sure if Saginaw boxes from non-Jeep applications have the same shaft size and splines, so this may only work if your Saginaw box came from a Jeep, if your rig is pre-'71.

After installing the 4" lift springs on Punkin, it was evident we needed a dropped pitman arm to keep the drag link parallel to the tie rod.

Since it was a 4" lift, it seemed plausible that a dropped pitman arm for a CJ with a 4" lift would work on a Jeepster or Commando.

There are a few different companies that market these items, but I will discuss the ones from Skyjacker, since they seem to have the most options available for CJ's and those are the ones I jumped through hoops with to come up with a winner.

For a 4" dropped pitman arm, there are 4 possible choices:

1) - JA650 for 3-4" Suspension Lift on Jeep CJ 1972-75 with Manual Steering

2) - JA550 for 3-4" Suspension Lift on Jeep CJ 1972-75 with Power Steering

3) - JA150 for 3.5-4" Suspension Lift on Jeep CJ 1976-86 with Manual Steering

4) - JA250 for 3.5-4" Suspension Lift on Jeep CJ 1976-86 with Power Steering

Since Punkin has power steering, I decided to get both the JA550 & JA250 to compare and return the one that didn't work.

Both arms fit on the shaft of the steering box and appeared to look identical. Only thing that appeared different upon closer scrutiny was the size of the hole for the drag link to connect to. But both arms had too much drop causing the drag link to be below the tie rod, so on to plan B.

For a 2" dropped pitman arm, there are 2 choices:

1) - JA652 for 2" Suspension Lift on Jeep CJ 1972-75 with Manual Steering

2) - JA552 for 2" Suspension Lift on Jeep CJ 1972-75 with Power Steering

So the logical choice was to get the JA552. After returning the other two arms for this one, it was found to not fit on the shaft. By this time it was too late to contact Skyjacker in LA, so next day a call was made inquiring what the heck? It was decided that the box that this arm came in must have been mis-labeled JA552, when it should have been labeled JA652 for manual steering. I learned that the manual box shaft is slightly smaller than the power box shaft and that it's possible that the part you have may not the one it's supposed to be.

After checking with the local parts warehouse, we find out that we got their only JA552, (which is in reality a JA652) and another one wouldn't arrive until next week. Oh rat farts!

We checked with the other warehouse in the area and apparently the Jeep Gods were pulling for us, as this one did have a JA552 in stock. This box did have the correct arm in it and provided the necessary drop to put the drag link parallel to the tie rod.

Although there are other companies selling arms for CJ's, Skyjacker was the only one I found to offer a 2" model after an extensive Google search. All the other arms I found were either no drop or 4" drop. If there are any other options available, please feel free to post to this thread.

Here's a link that shows lots of different pitman arms available for Jeeps:

http://www.tellico4x4.com/index.php/cPath/459_438

Although this is getting a bit long, I thought I'd include some pics of how it turned out.

Here's the 2" arm in the vise and the no-drop arm next to it.





Since the front axle for Punkin is a D-44, the hole for the drag link needs to be reamed a bit.





Here it is installed, front view.





Side view.

[DaveGoodrich]

When I needed a dropped pitman arm for my approx. 2.5" lift, I went junkyard shopping and found that a pitman arm from a late 80's/early 90's Comanche pickup was perfect. I would guess that it would be the same one used on XJ Cherokees from the same time period.

If you are looking for the larger hole at the draglink end, I think I remember that I found one with the right drop that fit on the Jeepster steering box, but had the bigger hole. It was from a full-size Jeep, if I remember correctly.

[Tim]

[ QUOTE ]
If you are looking for the larger hole at the draglink end, I think I remember that I found one with the right drop that fit on the Jeepster steering box, but had the bigger hole. It was from a full-size Jeep, if I remember correctly.

[/ QUOTE ]

Pretty sure that the no-drop arm in the first pic is from a fsj. It was a bit longer than the CJ arm and caused the linkage to rub each other.

[wrund]

Tim, this is good info. I ran into the same problem when I converted from Ross to Saginaw. My steering box was from a late '70's FSJ, and I used a 2" drop Skyjacker pitman arm I had laying around that came from a 4" lift for an FSJ (having owned 23 FSJ's, you tend to accumalate parts).

The FSJ arm had the right spline and drag link hole size, and it keeps my linkage parallel, about 1" apart. This arm was about 3/4" - 1" shorter in length that the original, non drop arm I took off.

By the way, Tim is a stand up guy, for those of you that may deal with him in the future.

[DaveGoodrich]

[ QUOTE ]
Pretty sure that the no-drop arm in the first pic is from a fsj. It was a bit longer than the CJ arm and caused the linkage to rub each other.

[/ QUOTE ]

like I said "I think I remember..." [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img] It was in a storage container full of steering boxes at Scotty's Jeep, but I was told it was from a fsj. It may have been from a lifted fsj. Sorry for the bad info.

BTW, I was having trouble with the stock jeepster arm being about 1/8" too long after I did my power steering conversion (I must have mounted the box a little too far back on the frame). The comanche arm I bought is a little shorter than the stock jeepster arm.

[Tim]

David:

Good to know that the Comanche arm is a player, thanks.



Warren:

Thanks for the kudos. Hope the cage is working out for you. Looks like I'll be at the Dunes meet Aug. 3-6 with Punkin, hope to see you there.

[Tim]

I forgot to add this addendum: We were not able to get the tire clearances needed with the Alcan 4" springs alone, so we had to install the 1 1/2" lift rear XJ Cherokee shackles in the front and add 2" blocks in the rear between the frame and shackle mounts, (since we already had 1 1/2" lift shackles back there). Once doing that, the 2 1/2" drop pitman arm wasn't going to work. Had to buy the 4" drop pitman arm, (JA550 for 3-4" Suspension Lift on Jeep CJ 1972-75 with Power Steering), ream it out to fit the D-44 draglink and all was well.

[chains20]

Great information. Anyway this could be made sticky? that would be great.

Thank you for the information guys

[Tim]

Just want to make clear that the XJ rear shackles will only work with late '70-'73 Jeepsters and Commandos that came with 2" wide front springs. Older Jeepsters with 1 3/4" wide front springs will use a standard "H-style" shackle. Here's a pic of the newer style front shackle:



Here's what the TeraFlex XJ lift shackles look like that we used:



Rough Country has a set with two different holes for adjustability, which is nice:

[Caver Dave]

Tim,
I'm a bit surprised you haven't accounted for the actual length (NOT "drop") of these pitmans! (you're usually much more thorough & in-depth! )

After suffering with only 75% steering travel based on the CJ/YJ/TJ/XJ pitmans (5.5" center-to-center actuating steering arms that are 6.25"-6.625" balljoint center to steering arm taper), several of us are going to FSJ/Ford pitmans that offer the length (drop is between 3"-4") to gain back the steering on our OEM knuckled axles. While it may not be an issue on those running hi-steer, etc. (instances where the arms have been made with shorter BJ-taper distances), it may be worth noting MOST of the pre'70s-mid'80's Jeep axles used a longer distance than the newer D30s (YJ/TJ/XJ). It's been my recent findings that most suppliers have now (mistakenly? ) lumped the CJ into the others to reduce parts count and add the appearance of of "universal" fit... which isn't the case.

I have parts inbound to rectify the "short steering" which includes:
- '78ish Waggy/F100 pitman, with correct length to actuate the arms fully
- '70 GM TRE, OEM 11/16" shank, but with the larger FSJ/GM taper (no DL/PA mods needed)

Will let you know how that goes...