What is a good way to test a steering box
 

I just got the engine & trans out of the 82 today, I am told the steering boxes are difficult to change with the engine in, I was wondering if theres a reliable way to check it without driving it. The car came to me with a bad trans, so I have never been able to test drive it for play. My 80 seemed ok in the shop wiggling things, but gets loose feeling around 65-70 on the freway, very hard to keep in a lane on a windy day. I don't want to have a repeat of this again. The car has over 300K on the broken clock, unsure if it's the origional box or not, but suspect it is as everything else is still origional.

The steering gear boxes don't usually wear out, plus they have an adjustment to tighten themn back up. drifiting on the highway is prol suspension parts.

But the steering boxes wear out real fast if they are improperly adjusted when they don't need to be.

I changed my strg box in my 81 300CD with engine in the car. No problem with access. The retaining bolts are accessed thru the left front frame as you know. Just remove the wheel. The flex coupler was loosened at both allen bolts and slid up the column to provide a gap. The box was removed with the pitman arm attached and lowered with a floor jack. The replacement was raised into position again with a floor jack, the three bolts installed loosely then the flex coupler slid down and tightened then the box bolts were tightened. Unless the box is leaking as mine was, it should not need replaced , maybe adjusted. Adjustment is best done once the vehicle can be test driven to verify no binding.

Ok, thanks guys, I will let well enough alone on it for now then, I already plan to replace a lot of the suspension parts on this one before it sees the road, as nearly all of the grease boots are long gone on the joints, so I expect they are pretty old and pretty worn from dirt & age at this point. If they arent already yet, they will soon be without those boots. I have a lot of good parts to swap on my other donor, and will be going thru all the grommets as well.