Single ram steering arm

[pcrussell50]

Just as a data point, I have a three-ram clamp, that had a skinny arm tiller. Don't know if it came that way stock, I think it did. Just this off-season, I replace the skinny arm with a fattie. It was a direct replacement. Easy peasy. Maybe it was easy because I started with a triple ram?

1986 (or was it 1987?) three ram clamp.

-Peter

[Aaronhl]

Just as a data point, I have a three-ram clamp, that had a skinny arm tiller. Don't know if it came that way stock, I think it did. Just this off-season, I replace the skinny arm with a fattie. It was a direct replacement. Easy peasy. Maybe it was easy because I started with a single ram?

1986 (or was it 1987?) three ram clamp.

-Peter

the late 80s first 3 ram trims had a skinny arm with long shoulder confusing huh !! The skinny’s come in both versions

[pcrussell50]

the late 80s first 3 ram trims had a skinny arm with long shoulder confusing huh !! The skinny’s come in both versions

LOL. At least they aren't confusing about their carburetors?

BTW change my quote in your post so it says "Maybe it was easy because I started with a triple ram?" so other readers don't get confused. I never had a single ram. Thanks.

-Peter

[Merc 2.5]

might be ur call on that cuz I measured the top bolt holes to the bottom of the swivel arm - same measurement on both arms

i am leaning towards 1-7/16 to make identical to the single trim arm but you know that hack saw can wonder !!

I am planning on taking a couple of these arms to someone who can mill it off

Well i broke out the fat arm earlier and the plug welds are almost impossible to drill lol. I ended up using masonry bits to get thru it. So I stopped and pondered on it, Ill get other plug weld drilled thru but im not 100% sure I wanna try press arm off shaft, I may take it somewhere to have it milled down also. And Im sticking with 1 7/16ths , I was able check measurements today also, not that I was doubting you. But on the other hand im thinkin I can heat the arm where id be cutting and press shaft out pretty easy , cut it and reheat arm and freeze shaft and reinstall with new plug welds

[Aaronhl]

OK Good glad u doubled checked the measurements, I will get back here once I have it milled down, seems a lot easier than drilling it out and or pressing off, I like to do things myself so I get why u are trying to do that, I hate to give this to someone else to fix

[pcrussell50]

All this talk about measuring… When I swapped the skinny tiller out of my 1987 three-ram, for a fat tiller back into the same three-ram, I didn’t measure anything. Didn’t even cross my mind to measure anything. I just assumed it would fit. Wondering if I just got lucky. :shrugs:

-Peter

[Aaronhl]

All this talk about measuring… When I swapped the skinny tiller out of my 1987 three-ram, for a fat tiller back into the same three-ram, I didn’t measure anything. Didn’t even cross my mind to measure anything. I just assumed it would fit. Wondering if I just got lucky. :shrugs:

-Peter

the issue is the 3 ram and single trim arms are not a direct swap, u can use any 3 ram arm, skinny, fat, older, newer stainless, rusted etc haha in any 3 ram bracket, it’s the swivel bracket that is different between each so they changed the arm

[Aaronhl]

Well i broke out the fat arm earlier and the plug welds are almost impossible to drill lol. I ended up using masonry bits to get thru it. So I stopped and pondered on it, Ill get other plug weld drilled thru but im not 100% sure I wanna try press arm off shaft, I may take it somewhere to have it milled down also. And Im sticking with 1 7/16ths , I was able check measurements today also, not that I was doubting you. But on the other hand im thinkin I can heat the arm where id be cutting and press shaft out pretty easy , cut it and reheat arm and freeze shaft and reinstall with new plug welds

ya so I brought the arm to two machinists today and one said was too big for his lathe or his tool couldn’t slide over far enough, the other said he might try it somehow but both said I should press the arm off to make it easier, issue is my arms are welded on the top
the guy that said he try it wants like $200 per arm so maybe I’ll try a hack saw

[Aaronhl]

Thinking out loud here might make a miter jig for my 4” grinder using a flush cut disc and some shaft collars to spin the arm while I push down on the grinder…cut needs to be approx 15/32” all the way around, then maybe hack up the “loose” pieces n chisel off ?????????

[Chaz]

Getting any of them apart is easy. The harder part is proper length and rotational alignment. The best tiller arm to use is the late model 3.0L. It's stainless steel, but the collar needs to be milled down to 1.00" tall and the upper mount holes need to be drilled out to .500 from 12mm. If you can deal with that, you'll find that the three front holes are usually in excellent condition .. and it won't leave orange streaks in your driveway ..

[Aaronhl]

There he is !!

So is the arm press fit onto the shaft?

Exactly the stainless arms are very nice too bad it took them 15 years to think of that one

[Chaz]

Yes

[Aaronhl]

Chaz that work looks great n all but what about the redneck engineering way of doing it if someone (like me) doesnt have all the tools n equipment

[Chaz]

Aaron, I thought the way i did it was the redneck way. (one at a time)
No tellin how many the factory can do in an hour.

I made a pretty simple mandrel for my press to get em apart. An alignment jig for puttin it back together straight .. gotta have at least that stuff or it ain't gonna happen. Then you need to weld it so it won't move once your done ...

[RoyE]

I modified a stainless 3L fat tiller arm to fit in my single ram setup. Not sure if a 2.5L fat tiller arm is the same.

I needed help from friends as I didn't have all the proper tools (who has a lathe that big )

Here is the thread https://www.screamandfly.com/showthr...fshore-bracket