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.

[Tex06]

Did you get the answers you needed? 

[Pete M]

technically no, but I swapped the old box back in earlier this week (power steering works again!) and in the near future I'll be able to measure this different box's swing.  

[Gojira94]

I had questions as I was getting my front suspension/ steering gear set up a few months ago. When I rebuilt my box, I counted box input shaft turns left and right and centered it before installation. It seemed to me the old 'twist the drag link sleeve' method to straighten the steering wheel would move the Pitman arm out of ideal center for equal travel left and right. This video seems to confirm that. It's done on a CJ, but the parts and concept are still the same though: