Hello. I am new to the forum and also a new Corvette owner. I own a 1961 Corvette with a 327cu in engine in it. The problem that I am having is that when I turn the steering wheel to the far left the third arm (with the ball stud) hits the crank pulley. Is it because of the bigger engine or is it something more serious. Any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks

 

Is it hitting the Crank pulley or the Lower Fan Shrouding??

 

It is hitting the crank pulley. See pictures below.


Third arm touching crank pulley

Rub mark on these arm

 

I'm wondering if the third arm is bent up at the frame mount (so it tilts the whole arm upwards). If the entire front cradle was canted backwards I would think the positive caster would make the car undrivable.

 

I hope nobody jacked the front up by the center arm.

 

Ugh! You may be right, I never thought of that.

 

Doesn't look like it has been jacked up by the third arm and I have driven it and it seemed fine.

 

Does anyone know what the clearance should be between the third arm and the crank pulley when the steering wheel is straight?

 

Is it really hitting the crank pulley? The harmonic damper is larger and I'd think it would contact that before it contacts the pulley.

 

Do you have the correct Third Arm bracket on the cross member ???
Incorrect bracket would put the arm further up into the engine bay

 

Yes but the crank pulley is closer to the third arm than the harmonic balancer.

 

How would I know? I have only owned the car for a couple of months.

 

I'm wondering if your pitman arm stop is missing. Its mounted on the inboard side of the frame by the pitman arm.

Mac

 

I think Jim Lockwood is onto it. Bet you have a larger than stock dampener on it. My '61 does the same and I know I have a larger dampener.

 

I would also look to see how the fan is centered in the fan housing. This could tell you if your engine mounts are sagged out. My arm wasn't hitting but I had to raise my mounts just over 1/4" to get the fan centered.

 

Remembering my 61s front end, I think the center arm casting would crack before it bent if over-stressed by jacking. Most likely not the problem here.

 

I'm thinking that's not it. The OP says the pulley is hitting, not the dampener. In any case, plenty of C1s came stock with an 8" dampener, and either that one or the small one should locate the pulley in the same place.

Here are two older threads on similar topics--both of these lean toward steering component issues:

Third arm is too high

Third arm touches pulley

 

I have an 8" damper and the larger SHP 327 pulley and the arm does not come close to hitting anything.

AND I lowered the motor 3/8" to clear the hood with my custom EFI setup.

I would suspect you motor sits way too low, does it have the factory rubber spacers between the motor mount plate and the mounting towers? if so, how thick are they as it sits?

i suppose somebody could have modded the steel towers, but would call that unlikely.

Doug

 

Yes the rubber mounts are there. They measure about 1” think as it sits right now.

 

I absolutely do not understand how this situation could exist. Something is significantly wrong. Either the engine is sitting down waaaaaaaaaay to low, OR, something is wrong with either the steering arm bracket, or the steering arm itself.
I just took a close look at the steering on the 56 and turned the arm lock to lock.
The engine in the 56 has the same style 8in balancer and pulley as shown in the above picture.
Without personally putting my eyes on the engine/steering pictured above, it is nearly impossible for me to speculate what is wrong---------------but SOMETHING is NOT right!

Also, as an added comment, the FIRST year for an 8in balancer was 1962 ------------------------- ONLY on the solid lifter 327 engines (340hp with AFB carb or 360hp with FI). Throughout the 60s, all hi-perf 327 engines had the 8in balancer, and all 350 engines had an 8in balancer. The 8in balancer on hi-perf 327 engines was the widest version. But unfortunately, the comparison pictures I took several years ago of balancers did not get saved to my hard drive because I saved them to Photobucket. Photobucket has hijacked ALL of my pictures as well as many other people's pictures!!!!!!!!!!!
I might just also mention that the SB400 balancers are also 8in, but they have a big notch half way around the outer ring for external balancing. And a 400 balancer is just slightly wider than a 350 balancer. I do have comparison pictures of 400/350 balancers below.