Welding pitman arms

[Z()LTAN]

Anyone had expierience with this?

Im installing 3/4 heims to all of my tie rod ends so i need to drill the pitman arm taper out to 3/4. There wont be enough meat left to keep it strong enough...

Im wanting to either chop and replace with a section of 50x25 flat bar bent to the right shape or bend some bar around the end of the arm and weld it to it for some extra wall thickness.

making a whole new one with a new spline cut into it sounds great but no idea where i can get the spline done.

Cheers guys.

Oh and its on a toyota hzj75 ute

[80's_delirious]

it is illegal to weld any steering components. A pitman arm is forged steel, welding it would potentially weaken it.

I would guess a booty fab pitman arm would have to be something other than mild steel so it doesnt bend like a noodle from the first decent hit offroad

[Z()LTAN]

legalitys are not an issue

Strength is though.

i have some bizalloy i could use... But then drilling the 3/4 hole is almost impossible.

The factory arms are very soft and drill with ease im guessing they are no more than a high grade cast steel

[Struth]

What pitman arm are you currently using, this is an aftermarket one I got from the net and it would have heaps of meat left after drilling the taper out to 3/4".



It is Toyota IFS box/60 series spline, with same drop as standard 60 series and about 20mm shorter between spline and taper centres.

In the photo it is as it came with a 40 series taper hole.

Cheers

[Z()LTAN]

Standard 75 series pitman, cant have it shorter as my steering rods will fowl.

I will look into aftermarket/different series pitman arms that may work... but i think my chances are next to none.

[Struth]

Where did you buy that shortened pitty arm mate?ive got a mate chasing a short one for he's truck

Locktup 4x4,

1 x Drop Pitman Arm (130005-1) = $139.87


Be aware though that it wont accept 60 series tapers, even though they will assure you it does


Cheers

[WICKED]

I broke an mq pitman arm in a comp, stick welded it back together and braced it with tent pegs. Did another 2 stages on it and it didn't break.

Pronly not a street option tho...

[love ke70]

surely getting something like that made by a general engineering shop would not be all that hard?
if it was me i would be goin around the local shops, with item in hand, and saying, i want this made with this bigger and this spline, and strong enough that you break the rest of the steering first (cause you can buy that off the shelf), and see who wants the job...
or am i missing a crucial part?

[Struth]

surely getting something like that made by a general engineering shop would not be all that hard?
if it was me i would be goin around the local shops, with item in hand, and saying, i want this made with this bigger and this spline, and strong enough that you break the rest of the steering first (cause you can buy that off the shelf), and see who wants the job...
or am i missing a crucial part?

Finding the engineering shop who is interested is the crucial part.

I hunted for days to find someone remotely interested in putting a larger 60 series taper in mine, most machine shops aren't all that interested in little one off jobs these days.

Cheers

[love ke70]

i musta been lucky, ive never had a trouble getting my usual shop to do work for me, and when they didnt wanna/couldnt do something, they put me onto a place down the road happy to do the work.

always seems like it costs alot for what they do though

[Z()LTAN]

Issue is that ive made everything on this car and id like to keep it that way

I think im going to find out exactly what kind of cast steel it is then go from there

[bad_religion_au]

Issue is that ive made everything on this car and id like to keep it that way

I think im going to find out exactly what kind of cast steel it is then go from there

did you make the lockers?

if not, view this as a component needing specialised machining like locker bits.

[Guy]

I cant recall who makes them, but I have seen some extreme duty pitman arms made using plate\bar that have had what appears to be a regular cast steel spline TIG'd into the arm
You could get whatever drop and throw you wanted .. as well as the ability to have the rod end in double sheer (captive inside the arm)

[Rhett]

I got a pitman arm made very similar to love mud idea. It was 25x 50mm bright bar bent to the drop I wanted and cut to the throw I wanted. A large hole was then milled where the spline goes big engough to drop the hole splined section of the stock arm. I then waited for the missus to go out, then poped it in the oven on high warmed it all up and stick welded it with weld alls, The wacked it back in the oven to cool slowly. It lasted till I went full hydro. but it was heavy. I got pics of it somwhere but can't find them.

[CanberraMav]

I just cut and welded my 60 series one. Its off road only though.

It has stood up to years of abuse with 38 inch tyres and i have done about 5 comps with this setup.

[Z()LTAN]

Thanks alot for the replys!

Any pics you guys could find would be awesome.

Cheers

[CanberraMav]

If i took a pic i would just look like a standard pitman arm. Its hard to see where it was cut.

The way i did it was to cut and then almost sharpen the ends to be welded so it looked a bit like 2 spear heads pointing at each other. This allowed a heap of heat and weld into the join.

I had never done anything like this before so it may not be the best way but it has been fine so far

[duncan]

Tom I have welded yota steering arms before together to make hi steer on my old zuk buggy just used 13s gp rods with a bit more amps there still going strong.Couldnt see why you cant put a plate on the top or bottom or both and weld to the original arm then drill the hole lot out.

Duncan

[Z()LTAN]

Cheers duncan thats pretty much my plan.

[Rhett]

I found some pics from mine before the spine was welded in

[Willy Hilux]

We did cutting and welding of pitman arms years ago with no probs. We cut them nearly all the way through and bent to get the correct angle we wanted. Then mig welded. Wrapped so 25 x 3 mm flat from the big section all the way round and welded top and bottom and cooled slowly in lime over night. Mine had the end drilled for a 20mm bolt from a rod end. Ran this on the road then in my first comp truck for a few years with no probs.