Should my 1995 E300D have about 1 inch of steering wheel play.

The recent jobs done are

new tie rods (meyle)
new drag link (lemforder)
new idler arm bush (lemforder)
new steering shock (destek) - got it free (also have a belt shock from the same company)

The play is very loose and I guesstimated about 1 inch on the circumfrence of the wheel. After the 1 inch movement on the wheel the pitman arm on the box reacts and the rest follows. Before the above jobs I had very very terribly shot joints and the car was all over the road.

Is this normal or should I be removing the manifold to attack the box with a 19mm spanner and 6mm allen

I cannot comment on the model, but the w123 specs that 1" is acceptable.

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Is there looseness with the wheels straight ahead or turned? I was told that looseness when the wheels are turned is normal as long as it's fairly tight straight ahead.

Have you checked the couplings and attachment of the steering box to the frame?

Sixto
87 300D

its loose regardless of straight or turned - its a freeplay that you can rock the steering with touch pressure.. I tested it with my wife playing the wheel and me inspecting the shaft coupling - the coupling moves with the steering wheel with no slop but the pitman arm does not react unless the freeplay is taken up.

There is also an issue with the car not behaving correctly on wet tarmac - it loses traction and tends to wander - also sometimes in a gust of wind on dry roads I have to correct the steering to keep it in lane - It seems very odd for a MB to do this as I have owned japanese cars before and they were solid in the same situation.