Steering pitman arm and heim?

Has anyone ever thought of makig a bracket so a high misalignment heim could be mounted vertically instead of horizontal on the pitman arm? Thoughts?

If you made a braket to do that, I don't see why you'd need a High Misalignment heim. You would also need the bracket to pivot as well.

Just some thoughts,

Dan

I was also wondering if this could be done also..... But didn't see how to make it pivot the way it needs to.....

There are two design issues as I see it: bracket shape and bearing design. I will describe what I have in mind as best I can without being able to attach a CAD image. I design w/ SolidWorks software, in case anyone is curious.

Visualize the following: facing the front of the XJ, take a piece of formed channel with the two legs pointing left. Drill the hole for the heim bolt through both legs. Take a piece of thick flat stock and weld it to the top open area of the channel, making a box with the left side & bottom missing. Then drill a hole in that top plate sized appropriately for a light press fit of a pair of flanged oilite bearings, which will provide the vertical rotational axis. The bearings must be sized to fit precisely onto a stud with a large diameter for strength, a good surface finish for wear, a tapered and threaded end to press into the pitman arm in place of the stock TRE, and a threaded end for a castle nut to retain the "heim box," for lack of a better name. Assemble it with a washer between the pitman arm and the box, and the box and the castle nut so that there are smooth bearing surfaces, and tighten to remove slop but not so much as to overly preload the bearing.

Try www.beemerprecision.com for the bearings.

I'd be happy to design this part if someone wanted to manufacture it, but with my impending relocation and Moab excursion it'll have to wait for a few weeks.

So I lied...

I managed to throw a concept together this morning... if anyone wants a pic of the idea, e-mail or PM me and I'll attach it to an e-mail. I don't know how to attach pics to posts yet.

xjnation said:

Has anyone ever thought of makig a bracket so a high misalignment heim could be mounted vertically instead of horizontal on the pitman arm? Thoughts?

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I thought about using a clevis through the pitman arm, but the life expectancy would suck. A heim doesnt have enough misalignment to be rigidly mounted vertically to the pitman.

what about twisting the end of the pitman arm so that the rod end is at a better angle for droop. just an idea...

88justin said:

what about twisting the end of the pitman arm so that the rod end is at a better angle for droop. just an idea...

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That's actually a pretty good idea except for the fact that the pitman arm wont take kindly to twisting & would most likely fail. Now if someone made a new casting with a slight tilt toward the passenger side......