Mopar Muscle Association UK

OK apologies for non-Mopar content......
I'm doing a few jobs on my mate's 1959 3100 which he's recently bought, and naturally there are some bodges to correct.

On the offchance that anyone is familiar with these trucks ?




The steering has very little left hand lock available, but there seems to be a combination of things that are causing this.

1) With the steering box centred in its travel (drag link disconnected naturally... ) , the pitman arm does not hang vertically. I can't see how this can be normal.

However the arm can only be re-positioned in 90 degree increments as there are four master splines, so there is no obvious way to correct this.

Here it is with the box centred. Sorry please turn your head to one side.... ......

2) Let's say I could solve that, something else has me scratching my head.
Here's the linkage with the wheels pointing straight ahead. The steering wheel has been turned one turn to the left to allow the pitman to line up.
However the pitman still is not vertical. Is the drag link too long as well ?




Now of course I could grind the master splines out of the pitman, and shorten the drag link as well. But can someone tell me what is actually incorrect about the existing setup ?????


thanks

Matt

i wonder if someone has fitted a later arm and drag link

Very nice looking truck.
Mandie has a 57 so am a bit familiar, but ours has a complete Corvette front clip and rack and pinion steering so I am familiar with the terrible bodges the yanks do, but cannot assist with this problem.

Drag link does look too long though, as Dave said.
Is it worth disconnecting the axle end joint and seeing where it would all sit with a shorter link, just by mocking up and even clamping the drag link to the axle end to see what fits where when the wheel is turned?

First of all I have no specific knowledge of Apache trucks. On other trucks with steering boxes, the pitman arm isn't usually vertical, a bit of an angle like in the second photo is quite common and I'd assume that to be correct. The pitman arm's arc of travel isn't that great so I'd be assuming the link is too long or possibly that spindly looking arm off the stub axle is bent or incorrect if it's a separate piece?