Had my fiancee' up in the cab this afternoon tugging on the steering wheel, while I laid under, trying to diagnose the slop in my front end.

The trac bar is actually OK, no movement seen at all. Tie rid ends seem good. The only one with a little movement is the drag link.. pitman arm end...

But, that little movement doesn't explain the 1/8 turn of slop in the steering.. it seems like the input of the steering turns quite a bit before the pitman starts to move, and I hear a "clunk" inside the steering box.

I'm a little familiar with the adjustment on the top (the screw with the jamnut), but someone mentioned there's another adjustment that might be better suited?

A DSS is in my future, no doubt about it, but this seems worse that what the DSS will fix.

So is the box terminal, or could it be tweaked a little? Thanks in advance all.. I did search for steering box, but there's sooo much about trac bars & DSS's in there, it's hard to find what I was looking for...

 

Try adjusting the steering box, loosen the lock nut and turn the allen screw down till the steering tightens up. Don't over do it. Just enough to get the play out.

 

That is the sector adjustment for the steering box... As RickCJ said just screw it inward until the sterring tightens up... You might have a friend rock the steering livghtly to help the sector screw to push the gear into place. If you go to far the steering will be tight and bind alot. Make sure you hold the screw while tighting the jam nut...

 

My box was leaking, decided to replace it after 173k miles with a cardon rebuilt with a lifetime warranty from autozone