can someone measure how far the pitman arm moves to one side and the other?

[Pete M]

thought it was the steering column doing it, but the pitman arm itself moves to one side a bit more than the other.  is this normal?  tires move about the same side to side.  truck has a ZJ box and is lifted 3" so I'm trying to narrow down the variables.

[schardein]

I have a ZJ box in the shop that I could check, but it won't be able to until the weekend.

In my experience, centering the steering gear in it's travel ends up with a flat spot on the input shaft at the top, and the groove for the pinch bolt on the driver side and vertical (the attached picture is a CJ box, not sure if XJ is the same, can't look until the weekend).

I am not an expert on steering gears, but I have read quite a bit of info at   https://www.powersteering.com/tech-tips-1  there is a tech tip on centering the box.

I hope some of this helps.