Figured Out Why I Can't Turn Right

Take a look at these pics (the first two are with the wheels straight and the last three are with the wheels turned as far as they will go to the right). I don't know what the PO did.

It looks like he for sure used the heat wrench to trim some of the driver side engine mount, but I don't know what the steering setup is supposed to look like stock.

I'm guessing I just have an incorrect pitman arm, or if I have the correct one, it was installed too far forward in relation to the steering box.

The wheels will turn all the way left and bottom out on the steering stop on the axle like it's supposed to, but when you turn to the right it ends up coming in contact with the bottom of the driver side engine mount. I was wondering what the heck I was supposed to do about that, and I'm hoping I just need to pull off that pitman arm and get a correct one.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

For reference, the jeep is a '67 cj5 with the Buick 225 that still has the Ross steering.

 

Is it a Nascar pitman arm?

Sorry, I don't have anything to help, but I just couldn't resist

 

Since this is a 67 this thread should be in the early tech forum, not intermediate. You might have better luck there. Intermediate is for 72-75 jeeps which have Saginaw steering, not Ross.

 

I looked at mine, the arm off the Ross box doesn't get that close to horizontal when it is against the right steering stop. I think something may be out of whack in your tie rod adjustment, so the tie rods are not adjusted to center when your ross box is in its center. Just an observation.

 

Oops on posting in the wrong forum, what an oversight, can one of the mods move it to the early cj5 tech, or do I need to just start a new thread over there?

 

Looking at my service manual, regarding turning radius short one side. Possible causes: Center bolt in Spring sheared off, Axle Shifted, Steering arm bent, Steering arm not properly located on Steering Gear.

 

I wonder if there are different length drag links, maybe shorter for flat fenders vs CJ5, or different bends for the drag link? That could cause the symtoms you are having.
-Donny

 

I can get some pictures of mine tomorrow. I have a ‘66 with the Ross steering.

 

No master spline so if someone has had it apart without indexing it the pitman arm can be off by quite a bit.

 

I agree with Karl.

If the problem does turn out to be incorrect indexing of the pitman arm on the lever shaft spline, and not tie rod adjustment or other issues, the easiest way I've found to align it correctly is to remove the pitman arm from the lever shaft spline (while leaving it connected to the drag link), clamp the front wheels in the straight-ahead position, and then put the steering wheel in the center of its left to right travel (i.e. dead straight-ahead). With all of these held in place, the pitman arm can then be reinstalled on the spline, which should place it in the correctly indexed position.

This of course assumes that your pitman arm is not rusted to the lever shaft spline too much to allow its removal without removing the entire steering gearbox, and that the tie rod ends and drag link connections are already property adjusted.

All of this would be easiest to accomplish using a lift, but alternatively could be done with the front end up on jack stands.

You may find this helpful: Ross TL Steering Gear Installation and Wheel Alignment

 

Thanks for all the replies. I'll get under there this weekend again and start cleaning it off to take a look at it again. I'm betting it's just improper indexing of the pitman arm (I hope as that would be the easiest to fix, I think), but it just blows my mind that someone would cut metal off of the engine mount instead of trying to re-index the pitman arm. PO's man, pieces of work

 

That happens when they don't understand the mechanics of the system.

 

I’d center the bell crank first. It should be perpendicular to tie rods and parallel to the length of the frame. Then pop off the drag link at the bell crank and center the steering box. Turn the wheel all the way one direction count the number of turns to the opposite lock and then turn back one half of the distance. Then see where the two pieces falls compared to each other at that point. There’s probably going to be a gap. Either the tie rods will be adjusted incorrectly causing the wheels to not be centered on the bell crank or the pitman arm may not be indexed correctly.

Ps You can put the drag link on backwards and end up with the interference with the motor mount.

 

Bellcrank definitely looks to be off quite a bit. I've found some random flatfender parts on this jeep (switches and minor stuff), and it makes me wonder if the tierods and draglink are even the correct length. I don't even know if the tierods will adjust out to where the bellcrank will be correctly positioned. Looks like I need to get my tie rods adjusted correctly to center my bell crank then I can look at indexing my pitman arm correctly. Check out the pics