Re: Jeff Bade and his joints

["Jim or Ginger Aos" <jaos@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Joel M Brodsky" <jmbrodsky@domain.elided>
To: "T.R.E. Jr." <T_R_E_Jr@domain.elided>
Cc: <ihc@domain.elided>
Sent: Wednesday, July 02, 2003 3:56 PM
Subject: Jeff Bade and his joints


> In spite of 'what I meant to say', It never ceases to astound me how
things
> come out sounding differently that I imagine.  *did I REALLY say that out
> loud?* - type of thing...
>
> Anyway, my plan was only to determine what I *want* for a pitman arm.  I'm
> not terribly concerned about the whole temper issue, as long as I get a
> part on there that I can pattern and possibly machine at a later date.
> There is a guy in our local club, that works at a machine shop and so far,
> has been able to pattern and make almost anything your heart desires.  So,
> My goal is to be able to provide him with the dimensions *I* want and get
a
> pitman arm that does what *I* want.
>
> So, Greg H, Jim A, Hofs, others, what's the story on heating and bending
> the pitman arm that come with a Scout II?  Could I eventually cut both
ends
> off and make my own section in between?

On my old 3/4 ton 53 Ford, I heated up the steering arm to what I thought
was enough (medium red ) and could not bend it.  So I cut it with the proper
bevel and welded it with 1/8"  E7018 NEW rod.   This was in about 1967.  Ten
years and 80,000 miles later a spindle broke on the same side at about 40
mph, and I went for a ride.  In those days I wore 750 x 17"s for tires.
There was NO damage to the steering arm.

On the 1200 D pickup, I cutt off the ends of both pitman and steering arms
and welded  chevy ends on them with the same above procedure.  The chevy
ends were so that I could put a heavier draglink in. Even new draglinks for
3/4 ton IH was to weak in the ball joint ends for my tire size.  While
pushing snow up hill I broke the bolts and upper kingpin off the left side.
I was wearing 245 x 70 x 19.5"s tires with heavy mud and snow chains with
cross added between all existing links.  0 damage to the welded ends.

I don't know if the pitman arms etc. are heat treated, but they are a tough
alloy  of some sort.
My $.0025  Jim A.
>
> BTW, TRE, I fail to see how a 4" drop pitman arm, would +increase your
> draglink angle.  The goal is to have the draglink level, left to right, at
> neutral suspension/ride height.
>
> JoelB
>
>
> ---The stock pitman arm is cast steel isn't it? Would it be wise to heat
it
>
> and ruin the temper? Even from entry level metals shop I understand that
> attempting to re-temper metal is about useless. Once it has been tempered,
> you weaken the molecular structure by heating it again. I suppose if you
> heated the entire piece to a temperature hotter than the original
> temperature used to harden the steel, you might get away with it but...