Pitman Arm and Tie Rod Length Changes - a Follow Up
Posted: Thu Aug 21, 2025 12:55 am
Hello all,
A couple weeks ago, I posted on the forum about the different lengths of steering components. It seemed like a topic that had been discussed with the knowledge that there were differences, but no one seemed to know exactly what the differences were, and when the changes occurred. I spoke on the phone about a week ago with Alberta T-er Paddy Munro (who was the one to enlighten me on such changes in the first place), and with the help of ChatGPT (which sourced a lot of its information through the vast MTFCA forum history on the internet), came up with the following summary.
If this is a reasonably accurate summary, it should be then verified with other literature or cars as they stand today. He also said, go ahead and build my car with what I have, because the geometry, and more specifically a short pitman arm going over-center, or horizontal, can be checked and verified after the fact.
Please note, this list is has a small amount of conclusions drawn by myself, and I had just a wee amount of somewhat contradicting information. Some years are presumably inclusive, some are exclusive. Again, if this can invite discussion to clean stuff up, that is most welcome.
Pitman Arms
1909 - 1910: short and straight
1911 - 1925: longer
Tie Rod
1912 - 1913: 30 11/16" - 30 3/4"
1914 - 1916: 31 1/16" - 31 1/8"
1917 - 1918: 30 15/16" - 31 1/16"
1919 - 1925: 30 5/16" - 30 7/16"
1926 - 1927: potentially one (or both?) of the following
A couple weeks ago, I posted on the forum about the different lengths of steering components. It seemed like a topic that had been discussed with the knowledge that there were differences, but no one seemed to know exactly what the differences were, and when the changes occurred. I spoke on the phone about a week ago with Alberta T-er Paddy Munro (who was the one to enlighten me on such changes in the first place), and with the help of ChatGPT (which sourced a lot of its information through the vast MTFCA forum history on the internet), came up with the following summary.
If this is a reasonably accurate summary, it should be then verified with other literature or cars as they stand today. He also said, go ahead and build my car with what I have, because the geometry, and more specifically a short pitman arm going over-center, or horizontal, can be checked and verified after the fact.
Please note, this list is has a small amount of conclusions drawn by myself, and I had just a wee amount of somewhat contradicting information. Some years are presumably inclusive, some are exclusive. Again, if this can invite discussion to clean stuff up, that is most welcome.
Pitman Arms
1909 - 1910: short and straight
1911 - 1925: longer
- 1917 - 1922: Oval Cross Section, 3 11/16" length
- 1922 - 1925: Diamond Cross Section
Tie Rod
1912 - 1913: 30 11/16" - 30 3/4"
1914 - 1916: 31 1/16" - 31 1/8"
1917 - 1918: 30 15/16" - 31 1/16"
1919 - 1925: 30 5/16" - 30 7/16"
1926 - 1927: potentially one (or both?) of the following
- 30 13/16" - 30 7/8"
- 31 1/8" - 31 1/4"