cudak888
Well-Known Member
I just installed a fast-ratio pitman and idler (Proforged) into my '68 Satellite this afternoon. Car has power steering (stock box).
I'd just serviced the rest of the rack prior to doing the pitman/idler, so the tie rod ends were almost perfectly equal with the previous setup - in short, it worked as intended.
Now, the Proforged unit, unlike Firm Feel or other repops, has no indexing tabs on the pitman, so I marked up the original pitman, centered the wheel and rack, yanked the old one out, and put the new one in as close as I could to centered, then played around with the tie rod adjustment to get the toe-in reasonably accurate*.
After bringing the car down though, I find that I have only about a third of all steering travel to the left, but the right will bottom out on the frame (I've read that it's possible to bottom out in either direction without the P/S box limiter modifications as done by the factory on the E-body T/A box).
I paid pretty close attention to my installation, and I'm quite sure I didn't wind up turning the wheel when I didn't intend to - but sure enough, I hardly have any left-hand travel as explained above, and have all the travel I need in the RH direction.
I have to believe I must have turned the wheel to the left one full turn and not realized it, but I wanted to ask one thing: Is there any possibility that the fast-ratio pitman requires the steering gear to be clocked 180 degrees at the column-to-box joint? I somehow doubt I'm an entire 360 off (but maybe I'm wrong!), yet, I've nearly convinced myself that the 180 clock concept is nonsense - after all, absolute center on the steering box should be the same regardless of the arm's length, and at most, I could have been one or two tooth off - not enough to prevent the wheel from making 2/3 of its turn.
Thought I'd run this by the forum first before tearing into it tomorrow. I hope it's worth it, because the fast-ratio arms are SUPER twitchy. Then again, so is any Mopar that is still running bias-ply alignment specs, and I doubt anyone did anything on this car to correct that - but just the same, this thing out-steers the average modern car, and definitely out-steers the variable-ratio 3-turn Saginaw high-performance boxes that I've experienced in 1971-73 Mustang Mach 1s.
But when it's fast and floaty, it's a handful. Wonder if I'm doing the right thing. Been content with slow, floaty steering for 28 years now; now I'm asking myself why I want to change.
-Kurt
*Mind you, it doesn't have to be perfect at this point, because it's just so I can drive the car to find out what else may be wrong with it - it hasn't been roadworthy in years. Frankly, far as I'm concerned, nothing is really at an alignment-workable state in older Mopar front ends without eccentric UCA bushings installed, and I'm going straight to tubular UCAs and a disc conversion from here, soon as I can drum up the rest of the parts.
I'd just serviced the rest of the rack prior to doing the pitman/idler, so the tie rod ends were almost perfectly equal with the previous setup - in short, it worked as intended.
Now, the Proforged unit, unlike Firm Feel or other repops, has no indexing tabs on the pitman, so I marked up the original pitman, centered the wheel and rack, yanked the old one out, and put the new one in as close as I could to centered, then played around with the tie rod adjustment to get the toe-in reasonably accurate*.
After bringing the car down though, I find that I have only about a third of all steering travel to the left, but the right will bottom out on the frame (I've read that it's possible to bottom out in either direction without the P/S box limiter modifications as done by the factory on the E-body T/A box).
I paid pretty close attention to my installation, and I'm quite sure I didn't wind up turning the wheel when I didn't intend to - but sure enough, I hardly have any left-hand travel as explained above, and have all the travel I need in the RH direction.
- Tie rod adjustments look great. They're inequal, but only about 1/8" or so more on the right hand side. Normal stuff.
- Drag link is perfectly centered when the wheels are centered.
- Steering wheel aligns to the center, normally.
I have to believe I must have turned the wheel to the left one full turn and not realized it, but I wanted to ask one thing: Is there any possibility that the fast-ratio pitman requires the steering gear to be clocked 180 degrees at the column-to-box joint? I somehow doubt I'm an entire 360 off (but maybe I'm wrong!), yet, I've nearly convinced myself that the 180 clock concept is nonsense - after all, absolute center on the steering box should be the same regardless of the arm's length, and at most, I could have been one or two tooth off - not enough to prevent the wheel from making 2/3 of its turn.
Thought I'd run this by the forum first before tearing into it tomorrow. I hope it's worth it, because the fast-ratio arms are SUPER twitchy. Then again, so is any Mopar that is still running bias-ply alignment specs, and I doubt anyone did anything on this car to correct that - but just the same, this thing out-steers the average modern car, and definitely out-steers the variable-ratio 3-turn Saginaw high-performance boxes that I've experienced in 1971-73 Mustang Mach 1s.
But when it's fast and floaty, it's a handful. Wonder if I'm doing the right thing. Been content with slow, floaty steering for 28 years now; now I'm asking myself why I want to change.
-Kurt
*Mind you, it doesn't have to be perfect at this point, because it's just so I can drive the car to find out what else may be wrong with it - it hasn't been roadworthy in years. Frankly, far as I'm concerned, nothing is really at an alignment-workable state in older Mopar front ends without eccentric UCA bushings installed, and I'm going straight to tubular UCAs and a disc conversion from here, soon as I can drum up the rest of the parts.
Last edited:
1968 Plymouth Satellite B-body w/fast ratio pitman + idler
