The effort applied to the steering gear for cornering should be transmitted to the front wheels. This is performed by the steering linkage consisting of a pitman arm, a tie rod, a drag link, a steering arm, and a left and right knuckle arms.
The steering linkage is so designed as to prevent side-slip of all automobile wheels in cornering, thus ensuring ease of steering and minimizing wear of tires. For this purpose it is necessary that the geornet-rical axis of all the wheels intersect in one point which is the common center of the circles described by the wheels. This condition will be met if the inner steerable wheel turns through a larger than the outer one which is accomplished by the trapezoid-shaped steering linkage whose bases are the tie rod and the front axle, while the sides are the knuckle arms.
The pitman arm is rigidly secured on the pitman shaft by means of serrations. Correct positioning of the pitman arm on its shaft is ensured by match marks or by wide splines. The pitman arm is secured by the nut screwed on the shaft end. The lower end of the pitman arm has a tapered hole which receives a ball stud fastened by a nut.
The tie-rods and drag links are tubes with adjustable ends. The ends have side slotted holes which receive the ball studs of the pitman arm and knuckle arms. The ball studs are fastened in the rod ends by spring-loaded seats rod. The spring tension is adjusted by screwing the plug in or out.
The tie-rod ends have left-handed or right-handed thread and are locked with coupling bolts. Such an arrangement provides for adjusting the rod length, hence change the toe-in of the front wheels.
The knuckle arms are secured by keys in the holes of the steering knuckle. The ball studs are ar-ranged in the tapered holes of the arms. The arms and ball studs are secured by nuts. Reliability of the steering linkage joints is ensured by eottering the tie-rod end plugs and attachment nuts of the steering arms and ball studs.
All the joints of the steering linkage are lubricated through grease fittings to reduce wear and are protected with boots to keep dirt out and hold grease in.
When checking the oil level in the power system reservoir, the front wheels should be in the straight-ahead position and the engine should be running. Add oil to the level mark on the reservoir wall. When removing the reservoir cover, clean and wash it with gasoline.