Recently picked up a 93 190E good car but the steering is tight not like pumps bad but cant palm the wheel in a parking lot and driving just down the road there is NO 0 play in wheel is this normal? for this year and model?

The description sounds tighter than normal however my experience is with 124's. Does the wheel return to center by itself? Does it track straight or does it tend to follow the turn of the wheel? Tires factory size?

Areas to look:
Steering box adjusted too tightly,
Ball joints seizing, or
Idler arm bushing seizing.

Good luck!!!

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"Rudeness is a weak man's imitation of strength" - Eric Hoffer

Have you tried fresh PS fluid and a new filter? Are the wheels properly aligned?

Maybe it was over adjusted to remove steering play. AFAIK, a good box will have no play straight ahead but there’ll be perceptible play when the steering wheel is 180* or more off straight ahead.

Sixto
98 E320s sedan and wagon

You need to be careful when adjusting the steering box.
It's easy to get too aggressive and overdo the adjustment.

When that happens, you get binding and a failure to return to center after turning.
The fact that it has zero play makes suspicious that a hack has been working on this car.

You can loosen the hold down nut and turn the allen head adjustment screw clockwise slightly, and see if that helps.
I just performed this adjustment on my 85 300TD this week, and it does not take much movement of the allen adjuster to make a significant improvement.
The trick is not completely remove all play, leave just a little, and the box will not bind.

You will not get the same result as installing a new box (BTDT), but it does help quite a bit.

Jim

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14 E250 BlueTEC black. 45k miles
95 E320 Cabriolet Emerald green 66k miles
94 E320 Cabriolet Emerald green 152k miles
85 300TD 4 spd man, euro bumpers and lights, 15" Pentas dark blue 274k miles

Mostly true ^^^. The adjustment on the steering box is for friction, not play. Proper steering play (for a W123) can be as much as 1" at the steering wheel rim. The '93 may be different.