Careful the 2002 front end has a different pitman arm something like 1.5" lower than the 98 pitman arm

What i have is a 98 that i swapped in a 2002 front axle fine and dandy but the steering linkage sucks. So this go around i have all the 98/99 hd tie rod stuff to put in minus a pitman arm when i swapped in the 2002 axle into my 98 i installed all the 02 stuff including pitman arm and steering linkage. i noticed that the 02 pitman arm was longer than the original 98 pitman arm so i researched it and in 00 dodge changed pitman arms.

SO do i need to change pitman arms or is it that the longer (lower) pitman arm directly relates to the tierod ends at the knuckles on the 00-02 axles being in a slightly different location ??? so then in the case of the tie rod arm location on the knuckle being lower then i dont want to install a 98 pitman arm....................... i do know that the end to end measurement is about 1" more from tie rod end to tie rod end at the axle but have no other measurements scribbled down

anybody got the two trucks side by side who can measure balljoing to tie rod arm location vertically on the knuckle? Before i start swapping everthing on just want to be sure i have all the parts.

No i dont have the old pitman arm if i did things would be much easier. also Dodge locally says it will be two weeks for the pitman arm and no parts stores carry it yet.

Any help is appreciated thanks
Dusty

 

anybody???? i know the taper is a little different but shouldnt be anything a little tightening cant make up for. worse case i get it all in and have to rream it out a little but no suggestions huh.

 

Ok i got all the facts spent all day friday looking at tie rod taper catalogs

If you use all 98 stuff drag link, tie rod, tie rod ends and sleve you are fine then at the top of the 98 drag link there is a sleeve for attaching the pitman arm tie rod end to the drag link if you have a 94-99 rig use a 98-99 hd end for the pit man arm and you are fine if you have a 2000-2002 axle you need the 2000-2002 pitman arm and coorisponding pitman arm tierod end that end thout will thread into the 98 adjustment sleve and then you can use all 98 hd stuff from there..... what a difference let me tell you we put all new 02 stuff in and then aligned it and drove it then swapped in the 98 stuff there is no slop like there was with the 02 stuff. and i mean all new ends, rods sleaves everything.

 

That's funny cause when my buddy replaced his pitman arm for his 01.5 he had to use a 94 pitman arm. The replacement 01.5 was to big and wouldn't fit on the steering box. This was the factory steering box as well.

 

1/2 ton or 3/4 or 3/4hd? not sure i pulled the pitman arm off my totalled 02 and installed it on my 98 steering box then later took and installed a psc box. the spline and shaft diameter on all the dodge 3/4 tons appear to be the same replacement wise they share the same numbers from 94-02. he might have an odd ball or if you are talking about the taper of the hole in the pitman arm for the tie rod end. that would make sense because the 02 hole has similar taper but if the parts house gave you the wrong tierod end like an early tierod end it would appear loose and wouldnt tighten up


However it may have worked out for him thats good to know more for me to research further.

as it is right now i got out and measured the 02 axle vs a 99 axle the knucle arms are lower on one vs the other which makes sense when you consider the longer pitman arm. The 00-02 pitman arm has more taper and will require a 00-02 tierod end be swapped in vs using the pre-00 tierod end, which doesnt have enough threads to shoulder up with a nut. so this also applies when installing a 00-02 axle into an earlier truck like i did. you will need the coresponding pitman arm for the model axle either the 94-99and early 00 pitman arm.

when installing an 00-02 axle in an earlier truck the late model control arms are needed and the frame mount holes for the control arms have to be drilled outto a slightly larger diameter hole. and for the rear disk brake axle i removed the hieght proportioning valve off the frame and the 02 soft brake line threaded ring into the hardline end that orginally used to be threaded into the hieght proportioning valve. the rest of the trucks braking system has worked well with the addition of the rear disk brakes. originally i thought i would have to install a different proportioning valve and a different master cylinder but none of that has bee necessary.



back to the front axle hd tie-rod swap. Using Carquest/ Moog numbers the parts where only used in 98-99 hd optioned trucks. on a 00-02 truck you will need end ES3527 for tying into the pitman arm and on 94-early 00 trucks you will use the ES3497 end.

The draglink coupler sleeve is the same from 94-02 and is numbered ES2012S which is why you can tie all this together.
The drag link is DS1459
The long tierod is DS1456 The tie rod ends used in the hd setup have the same taper and the right length for the knuckles used from 94-02. Also they appear to be interchangable with the 03-05's also but need more data to confirm this

Because the long tierod it thicker it uses larger diameter threads and requires a bigger coupler adjusting sleeve. Napa, Carquest and Kragen all did not have this sleeve listed correctly in thier books. The number is ES3498S they kept trying to give me the ES2012s which is what thier books tell you to use squar peg round hole.
The outside tie rod end is

 

I just did this conversion myself last Friday. I have a 2002 QC LB 4X4 and can vouch for the part numbers. These are MOOG numbers but you'll find that Autozone uses the same part numbers for their Duralast (McQuay-Norris) line of parts. I went with MOOG parts from Carquest.

ES3527 drag link end at pitman arm
DS1459 drag link
ES2012S adjusting sleeve (attaches ES3527 and DS1459 together)
There is no need to buy an ES2012S because my 2002 had two of them already.

DS1456 tie rod
ES3496 tie rod end
ES3498S adjusting sleeve (attaches DS1456 and ES3496 together)

Lost my steering stabilizer in the conversion but the truck doesn't seem to need it. Excellent modification--especially if you need to replace those parts anyway. All the above parts have zerk fittings. Took me about an hour and a half to complete the job.
jl4c

 

Did this conversion 2 years ago. If you have the factory aluminum wheels you need to grind the outside tie rod ends so the don't rub on the wheels.

I used the standard Pittman arm and tie rod on my truck, and added an after market steering stabilizer. Also the drag link will rub on the diff. cover.

Good Luck

 

Riddle you this.... a friend has a 00 1/2 ton and went to a bigger lift, gave me the pitman arm off it ( the style that is no longer, just flips it from the tie rod going in from the top to the bottom) and it fit fine. Later when he wrecked the truck, I went to get the extreme drop pitman off of it and the hole for the tie rod was too big. Weird huh?

 

I had none of those issues on my 2002.
jl4c