63 Pitman arm connector piece

[galaxyflyer1]

Hello group.
I'm looking for this type of pitman arm connector (for the lack of a better word) that I circled in white on the picture. I cannot seem to find a replacement part that looks like it. The shop manual and parts places show a different style. Is it because I have a different type of drag link? In the picture I pointed to an extra hole that the drag link has. I assume it was for power assist? Anyway, everything else in the steeling linkage is good and tight. Just that piece that connects to the pitman arm has slop. Can you help me find this piece?

Thank you,
Bob
1963 Comet S22 V8

[Jims65cyclone]

Welcome aboard! I did some quick looking and couldn't find the part for your 63 Comet, but did find one for a Jeep . That doesn't help you other than they called it a Connecting Tie Rod - Pitman Arm to Steering Arm (Drag Link). That might give you a more accurate search term. Good luck.

Jim

[galaxyflyer1]

Thank you Jim. Looks like someone got creative.

[poboyjo65]

Parts for the earlier than 65 models just keep getting harder to find. & is the reason lots of guys convert to all 65 V8 manual steering parts. It seems like there was discussion on here of a part that you could order to take the place of the power steering ram. could this be something like that maybe aftermarket? Isn't that where the ps ram would be if it had one?

[Groover]

difficult to tell from the photo, but do you suppose the car originally came with PS and somebody removed it and replaced with this part? If the car had PS then the control valve would have been attached to the pitman and the two bolt holes closest to the left side of the drag link and the PS cylinder would have been attached where your red arrow is. Perhaps somebody took off the control valve and "fixed" it to the drag link with that mystery part.

Unless that part is original, in which case forget everything I said above.

Mine has PS so I don't know what a factory manual steering setup looks like. There is a discussion on here and there is an aftermarket kit to convert the PS to manual, but as I recall, it doesn't remove the control valve, it replaces the floating ball stud with a fixed piece. That way the control valve moves the drag link without need for the cylinder... but it's been a while.

[galaxyflyer1]

Thanks everyone for chiming in. I haven't been getting email notifications when a new reply is made. I thought I turned all that on here, but I must have missed a setting.

Anyway, getting a better look at this, the center link is not for this car. Therefore someone created a way to link the pitman arm to the center link with a piece of what looks to be a tie rod end. It seems to steer fine for now. When I have time and motivation, I will go with the 65 kit.

Thanks again,
Bob