After staring the teardown on my trooper to replace the centerlink/drag link and the tie-rods, I noticed that the pitman arm and idler arm had to be removed in order to get the centerlink out. How do I keep the pitman arm in the correct orientation with the steering box so that when I reassemble the parts, everything is straight. Is there a notch or something that needs to be lined up on the pitman arm? Any info appreciated. I will look at it some more when it gets light outside.

Brad

IÆm just thinking out loud here, butà

It seems to me that the center link itself would do the job of keeping everything perfectly parallel with the Pitman û once itÆs mounted back on there, the distance between the two arms remains constant; exactly as before --- The concern (as I see it) would be to make sure that the Pitman and Steering Box orientation remained centered, for steering wheel alignment/position purposesà Then any minor discrepancies left-to-right/right-to-left would be adjusted-out via the Tie Rods with an alignment.


That sounds about rightàà right?
(I hope so - I'll be undertaking more-or-less the same project soon)


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What I ended up doing was marking the pitman arm and the steering box when I removed the arm. Then I just had to line my marks back up. Simple solution really. I don't know why I didn't think of it earlier. Just an FYI for all doing this job in the future.

Brad