Quote:
Originally Posted by Diseasel300
Yes. The steering shaft acts on the worm gear. The pitman arm is attached to the sector gear. The adjustment nut acts on the sector gear. No matter how tight it gets, it will have no effect on the slop present on the input shaft/worm gear.
The adjustment to the steering box is to help preload the sector gear to prevent excessive wandering and weaving due to the box being too loose and input slop from the steering wheel. When the box is adjusted too tight, you wind up with a different kind of wander/weave due to the box just staying wherever you turned it instead of self-centering and following the road contour. As I said, there's a fine line between too loose and too tight. Too loose is definitely better and safer than too tight.
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As usual Diseasel has given us a lot of detail to consider. I have two things to mention about it.
I disagree that 1" is the best you can do on free play at the steering wheel. You can pretty much get it to zero without binding if you are careful on the adjustment in my experience. I have done this successfully with boxes with over 300K on them.
Also I believe the OP mentioned finding play in the coupler...to me that means play between the steering shaft and the connection at the steering gear, which would indicate a worn or possibly loose coupler.
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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.
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..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.