I had to shim the steering box to get everything where it belonged. The MP Chassis manual explains how and why. My driver side inner tierod end was hitting the torsion bar and the centerlink was rubbing the oilpan. Bumpsteer was real bad. Everything is fine now.

GomangoCuda,

I hadn't consider this!!! I'm trying to think if the original box was shimmed when I removed it. If so, would it have been shimmed with those square-ish looking horse-shoe shaped shims? I sort of recall seeing these now that I'm thinking about this.

I found the first pitman arm I bought, for my 72' b-body, to be slightly loose on the cross-shaft splines after the nut was tightened. The nut and lock washer had bottomed out against the shoulder, the tapered splined hole in the arm was a tad too big. I don't recall the steering linkage was contacting the torsion bar but clearly the pitman arm was too far up the cross-shaft. Sourced another arm from a different vender to solve the problem. I have never found shims installed under the steering gear originally, don't believe that to be the solution.

Wouldn't a shim move the box up? Making the problem worse?

Check out the suspension pic in this link. Make sure you have the center link installed correctly. It would be easy to get it switched end for end.

https://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/show...art=19&vc=1

Is the center link horizontal?
If not, either the pitman arm or idler arm are incorrect. They should be at the same distance off the ground. That means they should be the same height from the frame rails too.

JohnRR referred to this but in an odd manner. The idler arm and pitman arm do not set ride height. However, they are the points that are supposed to be measured to set the ride height.

My money is on the center link being installed backwards or upside down.

shouldn't the hole the tierod end go into be chamfer??

I'm running a 69 B-body k frame in the hot rod. My pitman arm is about an inch below the torsion bar. The tie rod actually sits below the T-bar with the wheels centered.

That's pretty far off from where you're at.

Cruzin,



From your photo it appears you have the wrong end of the centerlink assembled, it appears that you have the idler arm end assembled to the pitman arm end,....the pitman arm end should be angled rearward, and have a slight forward pitch looking from the rear,...the idler arm end is somewhat straight,....as I'm sure your aware there is no way to install the centerlink upside down, because of the joints taper,....but it's easy to swap the wrong end,...a photo taken looking straight up at the centerlink would confirm,.....


Mike

** Update ** Over the weekend it appears that I got this problem squared away. I wish the problem was as simple as having the center link reversed or flipped or a bent part, as some had suggested. However, that was not the case.

What I did was obtain another new pitman arm (third one) and replaced it. Also, I shimmed the top bolt on the new steering box. Not sure if the shim was necessary however, it appeared to add a slight amount of clearance and it doesn't seem to affect anything so I left it in when I re-torque the steering box. The new pitman arm was Moog same as the prior two, new ones. Comparing them side by side, and taking some measurements with a caliper, I could not find any significant difference. Apparently, Moog sources these parts from other vendors since none of them had an actual Moog part # as far as I could tell. All I can say is upon reassembling and torquing everything back up, wall'la no more interference!

Anyway, thank s for everyone's help and suggestions.