Integrated power steering isuzu pitman arm

gikort

gikort

Member
Nov 26, 2010
82
1
9
#1
ok heres the deal, I did the t5 swap, and decided while i had my pedals out, i might as well change my nasty steering box and column (and you wouldnt believe how rough it was to spin once i had it out of the car), so I bought a 95 isuzu trooper integrated p/s gear from the junk yard and it bolts in nicely with a couple easy modifications, it looks great, and will be easy to mate to the steering shaft, but naturally the pitman arm shaft is giant and i dont know how to put the mustang arm on it. I talked to the local welder, and he said the cast steel would probably break if i tried to mate them together... Any other ideas?


here is a couple I have had:

boring out the mustang arm and just using some set pins instead of the splines (but the shaft is tapered and the hole will be smooth)

boring out the mustang arm and machining down the isuzu arm to just a sleeve that will press into the mustang arm to utilize the isuzu splines and welding it and/or set screws. (but it will leave the mustang arm pretty thin around the pitman shaft..)


If anyone else has done anything like this i would love some advice!!! thanks.
 

  • Sponsors (?)


#2
gikort,
I don't know what it looks like, but how about modifying the Isuzu pitman arm to mate to the Mustang center link? Or have the pitman arm shaft machined to accept the Mustang pitman arm? Just trying to think outside of the box. On the other hand, I'm no welding expert or metallurgist, but I think cast steel can be safely welded, if done properly.
HTH,
Gene
 
#3
gikort said:
..and he said the cast steel would probably break if i tried to mate them together... Any other ideas?
Click to expand...
My car has a pitman arm made of 2 halfs welded together. It was welded 5 years ago by a guy with experience in special welding. He sad is was no problem to weld it and making it strong. It's steel and not iron, this makes a big difference. :)
 
#6
I think the Trooper box is the basis of the conversion boxes offered by both Borgeson and ABS Power Brake. I've got one of the Borgeson units - they machine down the sector shaft to fit the Mustang pitman arms. ABS, I think, will modify your Mustang pitman arm to fit the Isuzu sector shaft. Check with them to confirm that this is still a service that they offer.

Good luck, and let us know if this works.
 
#7
I could be wrong, but I believe the Isuzu box is what ABS Power Brake uses and Borgeson modifies a Toyota box. The Borgeson box does not allow direct fit use of a stock z-bar for manual transmission where as the ABS box does. This tells me they are different boxes.
My $.02,
Gene
 
#8
thanks for the responses and ideas. Yeah I believe the isuzu box is the one borgeson uses. it looks just like the pictures i have seen. I will check with ABS on getting it machined, and check with another welder here in town to see what he says on joining the two. westmus yours is done this way without any problems?

Mustang mods pictures by gikort - Photobucket

Here are some pics from photo bucket. they are as good as i could get of it down in there. One bolt was a direct fit, and I had to drill one hole in the frame rail. bolted up pretty sweet, same angle and location as the stock unit. just had to modify my steering shaft, the only prob is the pitman arm.
 
#9
The steering box in the pictures you posted looks identical to my Borgeson box. Borgeson cuts off the mounting tabs and welds a plate to the box with the mounting holes indexed properly. They also machine the sector shaft to fit the mustang pitman arm.
 
#10
gikort said:
westmus yours is done this way without any problems?
Click to expand...
My steering box is similar to the one used on a Cadilllac Catera. My pitman arm was made by just cutting the round splined end of the Mustang arm and then weld the similar part from the other arm on it. The finnished arm look just like a stock Mustang pitman arm.

If welded correct and using the right materials, I think it's possible to make the weld stronger than the rest of the pitman arm. you just need a welder who knows his stuff. :)
 
#11
yeah the welder i talked to said the weld would never break, but the casting around the weld would be really weakened, but i will still talk to the other guy here and town and see what he thinks. Hey how does your car run with the 347, t5 and 4.10s?? i bet it screams.

ill get some more pics posted when i get the ujoint and steering column put back in so you guys can see how it turned out. im just finishing up my clutch cable and a few other little things
 
#12
I don't see the pitman arm as a part who will see high force action in the steering/suspension. Only maybe if you crash the car and the front wheels takes som big hits. But if you look around you will find race and track cars with modified and welded spindles running with out problems. :)

My car is a pure weekend street cruiser and I run a mild roller cam (TFS 1), because midrange torque are most fun on the street. Buts it pulls hard to 6000 rpm and can still cruise around in 5. gear at only 1000 rpm. But when banging gears you have a lot of racecar feeling in it ...... big fun! :D
 
#13
Hey do you run all manual steering components (drag link, pitman arm, idler arm) with your integrated ps box? Mine was a factory P/S car, and the power valve sucks, lots of play and i dont want to pay 150 for the little ps-ms converter piece. I think i'm going to buy some used manual steering parts. what would you recommend?
 
#15
gikort,
What year is your car? The reason I ask is, early 68 and older appear to have used a 1 inch pitman shaft and late 68 and newer seem to use a 1 1/8 inch pitman shaft. The Isuzu box has a 1 1/4 inch shaft. I would think that opening up/re-splining a later arm 1/8 inch would be no big deal but opening/re-splining a full 1/4 inch on the earlier arm might not leave enough meat to be safe. The welder who mentioned the weld never breaking but the casting around it, etc. is right on the money, although I believe these pitman arms are "drop forged" as opposed to cast. According to a failure analysis expert/metallurgist, the only way to be sure a weld on that material would be safe is to stress relieve the whole piece by some process of re heat treating or tempering or something like that, I'm NOT the expert and get confused by the different processes that generally sound the same to me.:eek: I will be checking with local machine shops and/or ABS to see if they will respline my 68 pitman arm when the time comes. My sincere thanks to gikort for doing the research to source this box. I may well be a great boon to us all.:nice: Does anyone besides me remember when "Hot Rodding" didn't mean dropping a pile of $$$ on a pile of chrome or stuff that someone else sourced and modified? It used to mean going out to Uncle Verne's farm that had a bunch of clunkers/junked cars out back that for a case of beer he'd let you take whatever you thought you make fit to accomplish your goal and then takin' it home to hammer, drill, torch and cut till you ended up with what you wanted. Yeah, those were the GOOD TIMES, with no smog laws, EPA, Etc.:D Those were the days of what I refer to as real "Cavemen"!:jaw: And hey, I aspire to resemble that remark.:flag:
HTH,
Gene
 
#16
how to fix pitman arm situation

I have 2 1966 stangs, one with the borgeson unit, which I hate, unit sticks to far into firewall so attaching rag joint is more difficult and hard to seal correctly, and box seems loose. The other is from CPP, I know they make mostly GM stuff but their box has a better feel and is a little smaller. Borgeson's box uses the original stang pitman arm, CPP"s comes with one made up, I was going to buy a box myself from the yard but didn't know how to resolve arm issue. They did very easily. They take the isuzu arm, cut the part off that attaches to the box then turn it on a lathe leaving about 3/16 inch outside of splines, Then bore a hole in stang pitman arm, insert and tig weld it, never have to worry about it breaking apart. They also make a great tubular upper and lower a arm setup,for a very good price, which I installed on both my cars, no more flexing. Hope this helps
 
#18
Horseballz mine is a 67, and yes it is the 1 inch shaft. That's some good info thanks, it is all the power set up as well so I believe I am going to get a used man setup to use with the 1 1/8" because you are right, the mustang arm would be pretty thin if I bored it out to 1 1/4"

2slw4u Yeah i was thinking about doing it the way you described. I will have to wait until i get the man steering stuff and see if its a little bigger in dia. and welding in the sleeve could definitely be a good way to go.

The isuzu box was 50 dollars. I'm going to have to buy a u joint which sucks cuz they are like 50-80, and get some hoses built, but should work pretty sweet for relatively cheap. For the steering column i just cut the tube to length and welded in a roller bearing in the end that that fits the steering shaft. now I just need to buy the u joint. its 11/16 with 36 spline for the isuzu box and 3/4 smooth on the other end for the steering shaft. and best of all my mac long tube headers fit around the box and clutch cable (94 trans and bell) with no modifications!
 
#19
CPP box

A couple of notes. The CPP box handles great, their website sometimes has the info about the mustang stuff. They don't keep it updated or are unaware that it isn't there. Just call and ask. I bought their box without hoses because of my motor setup. Thought it would be better and saved $100. Be aware one of the fittings is 17mm. There is a shop out west I found on google that makes it. the other one is 15 or 16 mm and is very common at hose shops. I don't know if you can buy the just the lower control arm setup. I would buy the whole thing and sell the uppers in the car. It takes an afternoon and a good drill with sharp bits to do this but now the lower arm is like a full sized car.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

P
Pitman Arm Swap
Replies
1
Views
849
Classic Mustang Specific Tech
wicked93gs
wicked93gs
2000xp8
Time for a new clutch
Replies
110
Views
9K
1979 - 1995 (Fox, SN95.0, & 2.3L) -General/Talk-
2000xp8
2000xp8
89SportVert
Steering Column Help/:taco:hing
Replies
25
Views
2K
1979 - 1995 (Fox, SN95.0, & 2.3L) -General/Talk-
General karthief
General karthief
S
Progress Thread 1985 Thunderbird Fox Body
Replies
8
Views
2K
1979 - 1995 (Fox, SN95.0, & 2.3L) -General/Talk-
StrokedBird
S
67coupestang
Cpp mini sub install
Replies
7
Views
2K
1965 - 1973 Classic Mustangs -General/Talk-
wicked93gs
wicked93gs
Top Bottom
Back
New
Hot
Menu