Pitman Arm

Q: Pitman Arm

Can anyone help me ?

I have just taken delivery of a pretty good but (almost) completely dismantled (by someone else) 1969 Firebird 400 convertible.

The car is from the USA and is left-hand-drive at the moment. As far as I know it is original.

Because we drive on the left side of the road here in Australia I may have to convert the car to right-hand-drive but that’s another story.

Anyway the problem is the Pitman Arm.

I was told by someone that the Pitman Arm should be flat and straight. The Pitman Arm in my car is curved like a banana and also has a curved step in it. This means that the drivers side of the drag-link is closer to the ground that the passengers side.

Is this what the original arm should look like ? If not what does it look like ?

Any help/opinions would be appreciated

A: I had a similar problem with my 1968 400 convertable. The shop had a guide that showed a straight pitman arm so I bought one from Classic Industries. Unfortunately, it was the wrong part. Mine too was curved and stepped. I found one for around $99 at Ames Performance Engineering that worked great.

I was told that these are hard to find and that I might have to just rebuild my old one. I felt lucky to have found one!

Ames Performance Engineering is in Marlborough NH and can be reached at 603-876-3345 or fax at 603-876-4645.

A: The Pitman arm in my 1969 Firebird is also curved. The one in my 1967 is straight. I don’t think it matters which one you use as long as you have clearance around the stock exhaust manifolds/pipes. If you run long branch manifolds or headers then you won’t have any problems with either setup. (someone correct me if I’m wrong!)

A: I’m sorry, I seem to have missed the mark with my reply. As you see I described the Pitman on my 1969 race car, but as this has a much modified front end, I couldn’t be 100% sure. I got my 1969 convertible back today, and the pitman arm is the same bent shape.

Now I will try and be more helpful. I have always disliked converting cars LHD to RHD or vice/versa. I believe that there is more “potential” danger than the original system. But having said that, if you “must” convert, then I would suggest that you stay away from the chain system and the angle box system. The only safe (safest) way is to use say, a pre HQ box (HT-HG etc) and possibly other componants from various Holdens.

I think you will find that they had some very similar pieces and you can select enough parts to make it work. Also the US Ford pick-ups use the same Saginaw steering box as the Chev pick-ups but it mounts on the other side of the frame rail, so there is another possibility.

If the car is very disassembled, maybe you could use a complete front sub frame from an HQ-HZ ! May sound silly , but think about it. All your steering, brakes, suspension is there. All you then would need is to change the pedal box and dash,and column of course. I hope this is more helpful, I’m sorry it is so long, but it is the biggest swap there is.

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Category: Suspension and Steering - Steering
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