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Hey guys,
i been slowly converting my 81 to borgeson, I also swapped in a manual relay rod from a 69+ (no holes for steering damper)
along the way I replaced the idler arm with a moog and rebuilt the pitman arm ball joint on the rod.
when re-assembling I noticed that with the relay rod inserted in the idler arm, it takes a little flexing of the relay rod to get the pitman arm connected. It’s not much, perhaps an inch or so.
is this normal??? The rod does not look bent and was refurbished buy a long timer here on the forum well known for supplying these relay rods …
There is no “flexing” of the relay rod. Do you mean to say you are needing to move the idler arm to allow the relay to be connected?
imagine fully installing an idler arm, torque to frame. New box torqued to frame. Install the idler side of the relay rod slightly snug, swing it over to insert the ball joint into the pitman arm … in order to insert the ball joint stud into the pitman arm, it required me to push up about about an inch or so to start threading the castle nut. Wasn’t difficult, just awkward and struck me as odd.
remember me lifting the pitman side of the relay rod twists the idler arm in a way it isn’t designed … will the joint wear out faster being torqued when it’s only meant to rotate, I don’t know, but the moog seems pretty beefy …
I would torque up the pitman arm. loosen and then retorque the idler arm bolts that mount it to the frame. And I would call it done if the movement felt good from lock to lock.
I would torque up the pitman arm. loosen and then retorque the idler arm bolts that mount it to the frame. And I would call it done if the movement felt good from lock to lock.
i did that, loosened the idler bolts, turned steering lock to lock and then centered. Then retorqued.
With just the borgeson and new idler arm, the steering is TIGHT! I’m not sure this car will be able to return to center! These moog idler arms are really really stiff.
How about some pictures. I didn’t have any of these issues and my set up was the same as you describe. Perhaps you have the wrong idler arm?
that is a lovely stack of parts you got there …
so, I have no idea what happened, I went and loosened the idler arm and cycled the wheel, snugged it back up and it sat flush with the frame. To cause the sweat it would have to be at a slight angle … whatever.
Steering relay rod misalignment
