The play I saw in the plastic bush was a coincidence. Holding the coupler and moving it by hand all I could see was some play in the bush. My assumption was based on a guess, not knowing how the steering column is designed.
I'm sure the rack and pinion steering of my lightweight scirocco has me a little spoiled , but dang, I've done a lot of work on this w123 front end and it's still not that good. New LBJ's , UCA's, swaybar bushings, tie rods ends that were bad, Idler repair kit, rear trailing arm bushings and subframe mounts, and.... new tires.
It's like making parts payments, hoping one day I'll own a great driving cruiser.
I adjusted the steering box screw a while back and made it better but still have dead play (25mm). I have read that maybe a centering bolt must be inserted for adjustment; I just had the steering wheel centered (column locked). Maybe I should drain the approved PS fluid (that I recently changed
) and use the centering bolt.