emdoller

GTR1999

Most were black, some were bare iron. The only to get it correct is to remove it and take care of it. You could tape off and paint around it but it would show. If it needs adjustment then that would be the time to do it as well. It should have no play on center.

emdoller

GTR1999

As long as you don't take the box apart the setting will not change. If you have access to a 0-30 dial in/lb TW you can tell just where the box is setup- good or bad. The arm stays on the box and only goes on in one correct position.

Nowhere Man

Nowhere Man

Critter1

Steering gears for 63-67 were painted black before they were shipped to the St Louis assembly plant.

emdoller

65vette396

I may stand corrected, but the pitman arm should be natural.

Powershift

Ed:

I would leave the pitman arm attached to the steering box. It is a bear to remove and reinstall.........and you do not need to do this. Also, what month was your car built?? The steering box cover part full part number was only on the early cars before about December. Later cars after this had only the last four digits. But you don't want to try and change it by yourself...........or if you do, know that it might involve a bit of work to get the preload right on the gears. I remembered that your car was a late car (although I may be wrong).

Per NCRS JM: Pitman arm is semi-gloss black for manual steering (#3829452) and natural for power steering equipped cars (#3741383).

Larry

Critter1

The steering gear was painted without the pitman arm and that's the way it arrived at the St Louis plant.

The complete tie rod assembly, including idler arm and pitman arm was supposed to be coated with chassis black so some may have wound up on the pitman arm.

emdoller

Powershift

If you leave the Pitman arm on the steering box, it has to go back on correctly on that end. If you remove the Pitman arm, then you have a bit more work to do for correct alignment. Just be careful when removing Pitman arm from steering linkage to not cut the rubber grease boot where Pitman arm connects to the steering linkage. (i.e. do NOT use a Pickle fork).

On the coupler end of the steering box, turn steering wheel to get front tires straight ahead and note position where the two bolts are that connect the coupling halves together. When reinstalling, if steering wheel has moved, just re-center steering wheel (1/2 of lock to lock) and the coupling should reconnect without any issues.

If you have to loosen the upper coupling half and slide it back to remove the steering box, just use a grease pencil and mark the steering shaft and coupling alignment before sliding the coupling up the shaft. I believe there is a machined flat spot in this area so you really can't get the upper coupling alignment wrong, but the grease pencil match-marks will also provide original alignment. You can't really get things wrong. I just finished this job on my friends car during a body off restoration, and it easy to get everything aligned. I will walk you thru it if needed..........so don't concern yourself with this detail. Just have a bit of fun fixing things.

Larry

emdoller

JohnZ

With manual steering, the pitman arm arrived at St. Louis as an integral part of the steering linkage assembly, which was painted that sticky chassis black at Chevrolet-Buffalo prior to shipment; the hole in the pitman arm was one of the hang points on the paint hook at Buffalo (the top bolt hole in the idler arm bracket was the other one), and the pitman arm may or may not show chassis black coverage. I watched this operation at Buffalo.

With power steering, the unique pitman arm was produced at Chevrolet-Detroit Forge, and arrived at St. Louis with a natural unpainted forged finish; it remained that way, and was added to the (also unique) power steering linkage asssembly in the power steering subassembly bench assembly and fluid fill/bleeding fixture on the frame upside-down line.

Top arm in photo below is for power steering, bottom arm is for manual steering.

emdoller

Critter1

By the way, the practice of coating the steering linkage with black eventually ended at some point during the C3 era. I don't know exactly when this stopped though. Some claim that the coating process continued through the end of C3 production but that's not the case. I'm sure the C3 folks will know.

kenba

I believe the castings were painted at the foundry and shipped to the machining/ assembly plant so the castings would not be rusty. I was very thin paint.

JohnZ

The pitman arms weren't castings - they were forgings - the manual arms were forged at Buffalo, where they were assembled into the steering linkage, and the power steering arm was forged at Detroit Forge and shipped to St. Louis.

kenba

John I was talking about the steering gear housing not the forged pitman arm. Sorry if I confused some. I think most of the paint came off when the cast iron housing was machined.