The angles will be way off when making full turns if you change the orientation of the pitman arm and draglink length. Ideal location is to move the steering box forward to make spring and draglink the same length.
My truck has a 1941 steering box that uses worm gear and roller balls, an adjustable draglink, and stock '37 steering arms with stock type tie-rod ends. I have never had bump steer. I can run 65 -70 miles per hour all day long with good radial tires and disk brakes. As for the driving, it's as good as my '03 Tacoma when on good roads, it drives itself with very little input from me to keep it in the lanes.
Best advice I can give is, make sure everything is tight and in good working order, kingpins, wheel bearings, steering box, and tie-rod ends. Steering boxes are pretty crude, simple gear on gear with heavy steering ratios so any movement from the front feels like a lot in the steering wheel. The '41- "46 boxes have a higher ratio 19.8: 1, so it takes more turns lock to lock, but it makes for easier turning and bumps don't feel nearly as bad. I drove my truck for 15 years with the '37 box, the '41 box made it much nicer to drive.
I don't know if you can adapt a newer box or not on the '36 frame, but you want to change something, that's where I would start.
Play with the drawing and see what you come up with, but remember, the pitman arms makes almost an 90* arc lock to lock.
Last edited by Joe H; 01/28/2025 5:56 PM.
