I'm going to jump in here and suggest a different way to weld a pitman arm or any other two pieces of steel that are being mated together that was taught me by a gentleman who welded from one end to the other of the Alaskan Pipeline.
He suggests that you mate the pieces together male to male (not trying to be smart here)
and begin to fill the welded with a small dose of weld, than grind to remove slag, weld, grind, weld, grind, weld, grind, etc. until you have "over welded" the piece than grind to finished size.
It's the closest to original steel as you can get.
Joe
