39 banjo

3

30-9

Well-known member
I noticed that my banjo steering wheel is off by one banjo bar. I tried adjusting by turning the drag link connection, but it reached the end of turn buckle before the wheel is lined up.

If I pop out the opposite side, can I turn the steering wheel to right positon and then reinstall on the pitman? Or will the pitman move and then not lineup?
 
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Seems to me the pitman arm has four master keys,is it possible youre a 1/4 turn out? Is the box not centered properly?
 
The banjo wheel is keyed on steering shaft and the worm gear is pressed to a keyed slot on bottom of shaft. As someone already said, the pitman arm is slotted/splined to fit in any of four equally spaced positions on the sector shaft, plus the drag link can be adjusted in length. You need to work with those adjustments to get the steering wheel spokes where you want them.
 
Guys - Thanks and Happy New Year - - now bear with me.

I spent a good deal of time (by myself) yesterday on my back turning the drag link, trying to get the steering wheel to line-up. You can imagine how many times these old bones got up and down to keep checking the steering wheel:( So, I know, drag link can not get steering wheel into proper position.

I can't get a good look at the top of the pitman arm. Which I assume is where it's slotted. How does one remove that slotted side of pitman. Is it bolted on? Does it require a puller (like the opposite end that attaches to drag link)?

Also I'm told the pitman arm, needs to point straight forward. By moving it to a different slot, will in also change the position of the pitman so it's not pointing straight forward?
 
The pitman arm and the shaft have 4 blocking splines. The parts can only be assembled in 4 positions. You must have some wrong or damaged parts.
 
30-9 said:
I can't get a good look at the top of the pitman arm. Which I assume is where it's slotted. How does one remove that slotted side of pitman. Is it bolted on? Does it require a puller (like the opposite end that attaches to drag link)?

Also I'm told the pitman arm, needs to point straight forward. By moving it to a different slot, will in also change the position of the pitman so it's not pointing straight forward?
Click to expand...

As pointed-out by others, the Pitman arm can only be indexed in one of FOUR different positions on the splined shaft. Note the FOUR wide splines inside the hole, located 90 degrees apart on the '37-'40 Pitman arm pictured below.

The Pitman DOES need to be pointing straight ahead at the beginning of this process. Turn your steering shaft from FULL LEFT to FULL RIGHT. Carefully count the number of turns as you do this. Divide the EXACT number of turns (example: 4.2 turns, lock to lock) by 2 (example: 2.1). When you return the wheel from either lock by the 1/2 count (example: 2.1 turns), the steering box will be CONSIDERED "centered", or "straight ahead". Hope this helps. DD

136381
 
I don't know anything about pittman arm positioning,but it appears that if the keys were ground away,or a groove filed in each one,that the arm could be positioned in ANY position,instead of just four positions.
 
Couldn't get the 39 banjo in the right position on my 32 pu. (Neal Jennings rebuilt 37 Hudson box with 34 pitman for clearance) (it was off about 1/2 a turn) Even with the adjustable drag link things just wouldn't come into place so we filed out the keys, problem solved.
 
30-9 said:
DD, thanks for the pic and description, it now makes sense to me.
Click to expand...
Another easy way to find center is, as V*COOPMAN says, turn the wheel lock to lock, counting the turns and mark with a piece of tape straight up at both left and right. Then divide by 2 bringing the wheel back to center using the tape as a guide. You should find the tape to be at about 11:00 & 1:00 with the wheel centered. Once the wheel is centered then take a look at your pitman arm to see if it is pointed straight ahead. If not then you may have to pull the pitman, you can buy a puller for around 15.00 at your local auto parts or I know some auto parts stores will loan out pullers.
Also this should be done with the tie rod disconnected, this will give you true center. Otherwise if your adjustments on the tie rod are incorrect you will get a incorrect reading of center on your steering box.

Good luck.
 
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If the worm gear were to be incorrectly placed on the steering shaft, it could cause a problem of this nature. They are a press fit and generally have shallow splines on them with one as sort of a master. This problem would not be common but I've met folks that could turn an anvil into steel wool before. In 80+ years a lot can happen.
 
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