Impressive, and good job!

65 Coupe, I installed the Bergeson box kit a few months ago. It is spendy but fit well. If I had to do it over would use period correct pump. Pump in the kit looks to cheby for me. Works like a dream. Much easier to maneuver at slow speed. Very quite, no whines or howls. Money well spent however......
 

MustangSteve wrote:

Excellent writeup.  I hope you don't mind, I am moving this to the TIPS and HOW TO section so it will stay in a more prominent location sp people can see it.

Not sure about the welding overlap thing.  Usually a V is ground into a weld joint that so there is 100% weld to both parts.  That is the only possible problem I can think of with the installation.  That weld better hold!  Maybe even after welding it, a supplemental plate on both sides welded to the arm pieces as well for insurance?

Agree! Also see the recommendations in your earlier thread about this and regarding the welding.
 

jkordzi wrote:

MustangSteve wrote:

Excellent writeup.  I hope you don't mind, I am moving this to the TIPS and HOW TO section so it will stay in a more prominent location sp people can see it.

Not sure about the welding overlap thing.  Usually a V is ground into a weld joint that so there is 100% weld to both parts.  That is the only possible problem I can think of with the installation.  That weld better hold!  Maybe even after welding it, a supplemental plate on both sides welded to the arm pieces as well for insurance?

Thanks.  Welding the pitman arm is something I'm concerned about.  I see a lot of 4X4 ers and hotrodders that have done it with good success, along with cut and welded straight front axels, and spindles, not to mention all the commonly welded aftermarket stuff like driveshafts, crankshafts, axel housings, tubular suspension components, etc.  So I know it can be done, but I also know it shouldn't be done by me.  I do plan on generously Ving the joint and ensuring that whoever welds it pre-heats it and post heats it, allowing it to gradually cool down.  I've also read some things about what welding rod to us, so I plan on asking about that as well.

If anyone has any recommendations about a pro welder in the Dallas area, pls PM me.  Thanks.
 

 
Your doing an excellent job...Just a quick story...when I was 17 years old I drove my 56 Buick powered  42 Ford  to my go to welder to shorten the pitman arm ( it was just tuching the tie rod ) since I had to relocate the steering box for the engine swap...I pulled into his lot dropped the pitman arm and told Pete to shorten it I think 3/4"...he hesitated at first but did it ...beveled the edges and  overlapped bead after bead,  chipping and cleaning each weld as he went...an hour or so  later I reinstalled it and drove home...There are good welders out there you just have to find one...you will....jj

Greg B wrote:

one way you could do the pitman arm is  have a machine shop machine out the splined pitman hole in your Musang arm.   Then cut and lathe the center of the Izuzu arm so that it will press into the machined hole in the Mustang arm.   It could be pinned/plug welded from the side, and welded on the top and bottom and ground smooth.     

One of several ways to do this.

I've seen people do it that way and it would be my preferred option except that the diameter of Isuzu output shaft is so much larger, it would leave very little room left on the Mustang arm.  That's why in my previous post about this I thought about using a mid-67 to 70 Mustang PS pitman arm that has the larger 1-1/8" diameter output shaft (as opposed to my 65's 1" diameter), like the one shown here:  http://www.stangerssite.com/pitmanarms.html

I'm pretty sure those arms are the same length and geometry as my 65 arm.  However, I haven't been able to (1) verify if those arms are actually larger on the big end to accomodate the larger output shaft, and (2) I can't seem to be able to locate one for a reasonable price.
 

Steve-G wrote:

This is the swap I used on my 63 Comet along with the 65 steering gear and Granada disk. I did not get as involved with the alinement of the pitman arm , just eyeballed it under the car and tacked it with the MIG then had a welder at work finish welding it. I did this just before the Cedar Hill Bash. Some of you may have seen it there. Steering radius was reduced due to travel of the steering box , Drives well dose suffer a littel bump steer during aggresive driveing on ruff roads . I am sure the Ackerman angle is poor with the Granada spindels and the narrow Stanse of the Comet. Over all driveability and braking are much improved.
 

Thanks - how did you modify the pitman arm and could you describe any thing special the welder did or what kind of rod he used?

I've finished joining the Isuzu pitman arm to the Mustang Pitman arm and here's how I did it:
I started by cutting off the splined part of the Isuzu arm.  This shows the first cut:

and the second cut, which resulted in a step which would receive the cut Mustang arm:

After this, I marked the cut on the Mustang arm by stacking the Isuzu splined end on top of the splined end of the Mustang arm and marking the cut:

I was concerned about not only ensuring that the center to center length of the modified arm be the same as the original Mustang arm, but that the final position of the drag link end of the arm be as close as possible vertically to the original location. So before I milled a step in the cut off section of the Mustang arm, I made some measurements.

In the above photo, I lined up the Isuzu and Mustang boxes with the cut Mustang arm along with a yardstick as a baseline reference. In the next photo I joined the stepped Isuzu splined end to the cut Mustang arm to check how far off the drag link end would be from the stock position:

You can see that by simply stacking the cut off end of the Mustang arm onto the stepped Isuzu arm, the resulting arm is only slightly higher than the stock location. This indicated that only a minimal step needed to be milled into the cut off Mustang arm.  Next I used the larger tapered insert I turned for the Isuzu splined end in my jig and marked where the step should be milled into the Mustang arm.  I then used a carbide burr and a die grinder with some finish filing to make that step.  This next photo shows that step alongside the original Mustang splined end:

Note also the chamfer milled into the edge for weld penetration.  Here are a few photos of the composite arm after all the milling was done, including the chamfering for weld penetration:



When the milling was done I remounted the arm in my jig and made the indexing marks you can see on the above photos so the pieces can be correctly aligned when welded. That's it for now until i can find a good welder in the DFW area!

Last edited by jkordzi (6/01/2014 10:08 PM)

I finally got around to installing the pitman arm and noticed that the clocking wasn't right.  The Isuzu/Mustang pitman arm can be clocked to any of four positions, 90 degrees apart.  This is done by lining up a raised area on the splines of the pitman arm with any one of the corresponding grooves on the steering box's output shaft.  The raised area is just an area that was left ungrooved.  I began by aligning the wheels forward and moving the pitman arm to the locked left position, then counting the rotations of the input shaft until it was in the right full locked position.  I got 4 turns and 10 splines out of 38 - almost 4-1/4.  I then divided that in half and moved the pitman arm back that amount.  I was then in the middle position.  However, none of the four positions allowed for the pitman arm to be in its proper position. Therefore, I had two choices:  either grind down the raised area on the pitman arm, or try to cut a groove in the raised area.  I chose to try the latter, reasoning that if I failed I could just grind it down anyway.  I do a lot of woodworking and have a set of triangular hand saw sharpening files and one of them fit the grooves perfectly.  Here's a picture of the groove I cut:

The file points to the groove I cut.  It fits perfectly.  In case anyone wants to do the same, the file is a "4 inch double extra slim."  You may also notice that I added a bolt through the overlap of the Mustang/Isuzu pieces shown in previous pictures.  I did this as added insurance.  It's a grade 8, 3/8"-16 X 1" flat head cap screw like this one:  http://www.mscdirect.com/product/details/75458067.  The tapered head of the cap screw required that a 82 degree counter sink be used after drilling the 5/16" hole. 

Lastly, I should add that I got the idea for this project from Gikort:  http://forums.vintage-mustang.com/mod-custom-forum/636459-cheap-integrated-power-steering-write-up-pics.html
I corresponded with him several times about it.  He did his conversion in 2011 and has been running it ever since, including some open track and autocross.
 

Last edited by jkordzi (9/29/2014 8:32 PM)