I'm putting the steering into my recently reconditioned frame, and there appear to be some issues. The frame is straight, and doesn't appear to have ever been in a major accident. The steering box is new GM, and the idler arm is the Moog part that came in a P-S-T front-end rebuild kit.

The largest of the issues is that the pitman arm appears to be too long. The idler arm is 5-1/2" center-to-center, but the Pitman arm (7816381) is 5-7/8" center-to center.

The smaller issue is that the distance between the center of the steering shaft and the center of the idler arm pivot is 1/8" shorter than the center-to-center length of the center-link/drag-link.

The above two issues will create a change in the toe as the car is turned, but I don't know how much, nor do I know the effect on the handling. Can anyone assist with this?

Thanks.

The place that supplied my new steering box was able to verify that correct length of the pitman arm was 5-11/16". This is 3/16" shorter than what I measured, but it could be the same (I was in a hurry). I decided to see what I could find on the idler arm.

I called Moog tech support, and was told that their idler arm is 5.4" center-to-center. I was also told that "It must be right. We've made it that way for over thirty years." They have no way to search on specific parameters.

I called a few parts places, and they either didn't have the part, or the part they had wasn't significantly better (I found 5.446" center-to-center, according to the specs).

Finally, I found Rare Parts (http://www.rareparts.com/). They had some on the shelf, and were able to determine that the TRW 18763 ('75-'77 Chevelle, El Camino and MANY others) was 5-3/4" long. Since this was only 1/16" off, and for a similar A-body, I decided to try it. It should be noted that this guy spent 30 minutes on the phone with me, and only sold a $40 part.

It arrived yesterday, and I tried it today. SUCCESS!!! Not only is the arm of the correct length (exact match to the pitman arm), but the offset from the frame is 1/8" less, correcting that problem too. I now have a true parallelogram in my steering. That should do a lot for improved handling.