Yep, you can get adapters that go both ways so to speak. 1/4 to 3/8 or 3/8 to 1/4.

 

I figured out last night that if I lay a piece of .030 MIG welding wire in one of the valleys of the spline on the stub shaft, that I can then use a 18mm socket and manipulate the stub shaft. So I ordered a 0-60 in-lb torque wrench today.

Additionally, I talked to Bryce at Redhead Steering Gears today. His opinion was that if I had to screw the adjuster screw in by as much as I did, my gear is pretty much shot. Upon hearing that, I went ahead and ordered a rebuilt steering gear from them. I will still try and make a DIY outta this for anyone that wants to try it.

As a FYI, visited another dealership today and they said they don't have anyone who would know how to do this task (adjusting the Over-Center torque) either.

 

I got the rebuilt Red Head installed on the truck but now my steering wheel is about 90* off. i.e. To drive straight down the road, the part of the steering wheel that is normally at 9 o'clock (cruise control on/off paddle) is now at 6 o'clock. On the bright side, the truck drives a lot better.

My steering wheel would not lock straight ahead when I took the old steering gear off, but I made sure it didn't move around a lot when I had it unhooked from the steering gear.

I am really stumped about how to fix this. Anybody have any suggestions?

 

Front end alignment. Either that, or crawl yourself under there, and recenter the steering yourself.

 

Does it turn the same number of rotations at steering wheel from center to left and then from center to right? If not, then may have to remove pitman arm and possibly shaft and recenter. Alignment can compensate for small amount, but that would be heck of tie rod adjustment to get 90 degrees out.

 

No, it's not the same number of turns. The steering gear is not in the center when the truck drives straight ahead.

I will attempt a more detailed explanation. This is pretty hard to describe.

The steering shaft clamp that connects to stub shaft of steering gear (SG) is flat on one side. It goes on one way. The Pitman arm shaft that comes out of the SG has "flats" every 90* that match up with the Pitman arm. Therefore, the Pitman arm goes on at exactly one place, with no fine adjustments available.

The following is what I envision if I try to fix this. I haven't tried this but I tried everything else yesterday to no avail, so I am down to this. If I park the truck with the wheels straight ahead, the steering wheel is rotated 90* to the left. So if I pull the Pitman arm off and then turn the steering wheel 90* to the right, the steering wheel and SG will be centered. Here's the hard part. When I put the Pitman arm on the shaft of the SG, the ball joint stud on the other end of the Pitman arm does not line up with the hole in the center link.

I tore the rubber boot arm the ball joint of the OEM Pitman arm taking it off. The threaded portion of the ball joint is bent. I think that is significant, and why I can't get everything to line up.

I'm off to the barn to try this. Let me know if you need pictures. I will eventually post all this as a DIY when I'm done. If I ever get done.

Thanks,
Mark

 

The pitman arm can go on two ways. Straighten the wheels, remove pitman arm from box, center the box and reinstall pitman arm.

 

As far as I can tell, the pitman arm can only go on one way. Because of the flats/valleys in the pitman arm that line up with the "ridges" on the pitman arm shaft, it can only be put on to the pitman arm shaft every every 90* There are four flats every 90* on the pitman arm that match the four ridges on the pitman arm shaft every 90*. I assume this aids in getting it exactly reinstalled where it started from. Not sure what you mean by two ways.

To center the SG will require a 1/4 turn of the stub shaft. With the old SG in a vice and the pitman arm attached,, I have measured that a 1/4 of the stub shaft will move the ball joint stud (BJS) about 1/2 inch. The full travel of the ball stud is about 8 inches, four inches from center.

What I did yesterday is close to what you describe, however I only disconnected the BSJ from the center link. Then when I centered the SG, the BSJ won"t line up with the hole in the center link, to which you attach the BSJ through.

If I do as you describe, I could put the BSJ thru the hole in the center link but now the flats/ridges won't line up on the pitman shaft and it cannot be seated.

I am attaching a picture of the original pitman arm BSJ. Notice how bent it is. I think this is a major problem. It was forced together at the factory

 

All I know is , 98 and up(4x4) at least, can only go on 2 way's . The right direction and 180 off if the box is not centered.

 

Ok , just looked at pic and read the sig. So it's a 2wd, very possible there are more key ways on the steering shaft on a 2wd . sorry. Either way. if it's 90 out, the arm needs to be removed and the box need's to be centered, and the spline's need to be cleaned up so the arm will go on in the correct orientation.