59 cad pitman arm recall

[john mcniff]

hi. does any know how to tell if the pitman arm in my car was ever changed ? I was to;d ypu cpuld tell by the part number ...also mine appears to have  a bead of welding at the steering tube connection...thanks

[35-709]

Here is a posting I found by putting "59 Cadillac pitman arm" in the SEARCH function of this site, made by the author of an article in the Self-Starter sometime ago about the '59 pitman arm recall.  As you can see the "good" number is 1038, the recalled number is 1035.  You can read all of the threads that I found the posting below at by following this link ---
http://www.cadillaclasalleclub.org/forum/index.php/topic,73885.0.htm 

Dave Greenburg (3830)
   
Re: 1960 pitman arm
« Reply #5 on: November 22, 2005, 03:57:54 am »

As the author of the initial Self Starter article back in January, I must respectfully disagree anyone downplaying the pitman arm problem, including Mr. Templin, the former GM engineer.  GM has been downplaying the pitman arm issue since 1960 (I have copies of internal GM memos from 1960-61 discussing pitman arm breakage on these cars).  The reality is that the "non- 1038"  arms are not all "bad;" some will apparently meet the hardness specification, and many have obviously lasted all these years.  But there is no question that others can and will break. As explained in my article, if they break, it is invariably in slow-speed, high stress situations. If you are concerned about this and cant find a "1038" arm, I would suggest having your arm tested.  Mike West, the Club 59-60 technical expert who responded to my article actually had several tested; it is apparently not a big deal.  Im done debating people in the Self-Starter about this, but am happy to share information with anyone who is interested in this issue.

Dave Greenburg
59 Fleetwood 60S

Geoff N.

 

["Cadillac Kid" Greg Surfas 15364]

Just for conversation's sake, Robert Templin was Chief Engineer, Cadillac Motor Division.
Greg