Finally some DM progress

[Geoff Weeks]

This is what I'd do:

center the steering box at the mid point in its travel and lock it there so it can't drift down on its own.

Pull the drag link off the pitman arm.

Install the pitman arm on the shaft with the punch/timing marks aligned.

See how much change in the drag link is needed to hook to the pitman arm with the wheels straight forward.

From one of the pictures it looks like the drag link is two tie rod ends with an adjusting sleeve in between. That should give a fair amount of adjustment. That is how my Marmon is set up. 

[mowerman]

Well right now punch is in around 10 o’clock and pitman arm punch  is around 12 o’clock 

[mowerman]

lol I’m so overly burnt out on this job I don’t even wanna go look at it I’m indoors sucking up cold air and watching tales  of wells fargo

[Joey Mack]

Perfect. Sleep on it.. it will be obvious tomorrow.. just sayin'. 

[mowerman]

Well sleeping on it  did work out with the box bolts alignment atleast all the greasy oily part is over with also hats off on the END  Joey 

[mowerman]

I didn’t think you were anywhere near finishing that engine 

[mechohaulic]

wheels turned extreme left to extreme right =count steering wheel turns then split difference in half. wheels are going straight; your all set. don't concern yourself of the line up marks. your NOT driving it 100 mile a day everyday, don't forget to change PS filter. we are all waiting for primer and paint on cab LOL

[Geoff Weeks]

Mecho, May be I am mis-remembering but on my 392's (and others) there is a skip in the spline, and the arm will only go on in one of four positions. So you can't just put it on in any position.

The internal timing marks set where the external marks are. 

If this 392 is retro-fitted to a 1966 truck, It is impossible to know if it was ever set up correctly. The Sheppard 39 not the 392 was the box that was out in the 60's. 

The end of the pitman shaft has a small section that looks like it has been ground out, possibly to remove the "double spline".

If someone modified it to "make it work" and the next guy came along and lined up the external marks, that lead to the turning tighter in one direction then the other.

If the double spline has been removed, then center the gear, center the tires and put the arm on. If the spline is there, you have to decide how you want to fix it. 

 The reason there are timing marks, both internal and external is that the gear is set-up for a specific application, and in the application, if you assemble "in time" it will be factory correct, the only alignment adjustment (from the steering box point of view) is the drag link adjustment.

When you go your own way, and make it work, without then leaving a record, by putting new timing marks, you can end up like Bob has, where assembling to the correct mark leaves you in the wrong place. 

 If Sheppard is contracted to supply a steering gear, they will know the angle of the box on the frame, and time the internal gear so the external pitman arm will be correct, the internal gear will then have a timing mark on it to mesh with the rack gear timing marks and a unique build number will be stamped into the housing for that build.

 I think in Bob's case a 392 gear from some other application was used to replace the 39 that a 60's truck would have or even a manual box.

 The "correct" fix, would be to lock the main gear at mid point, remove the rear cover, pull the pitman shaft back and rotate until the external timing mark was as close to vertical as you can get (this is one reason why the pitman arm can be fitted in 4 places, so you can get the mark exactly where it needs to be, splitting the move of one tooth on the pinion gear into 4ths), and mesh back into the box, grind a new timing mark on the pinion gear, then re assemble. That does not sound like what was done when this box was originally fitted.