bad steering box - budget options

[porschpow]

I don't know A junkyard steering box is hit or miss.

Sorry to unbury an old thread, but I am going through the same problem

I noticed that there is a little slop in the steering and I think I narrowed it down to the box

If I am going to adjust it, here is what I gathered from you guys:

1) Jack up the front end so that the front wheels clear the ground (do you really have to)?
2) turn the steering wheel one full turn to right or left (off center, never adjust while wheels are straight)
3) Crack open nut
4) Slowly and minutely turn adj screw to right <1/4 turn

Am I right guys??

[Brown_Muscle]

1) Yes it will help you feel for binding as you are adjusting.
2) Yes
3)Yes
4) Trying to remember how i did mine but i believe I tightened it lightly and backed it off a 1/4 turn. then adjusted it further by feel. I had a lot of play and now my steering is fairly tight, for a box (but not binding). However the other's methods sound quite good!

[porschpow]

Yeah, the guy I spoke to said to tighten it little by little, but I think the main idea is not to overtighten it

[sly]

I pretty much did the same thing as Brown_Muscle on the 93 F150 I had (dang near if not the same steering box) cept I snugged it and backed off half a turn... then went lock to lock to check for binding and snugged down 1/8th turn at a time until it felt right and didn't wiggle so much. that one was so worn out though, that even after that, it still wandered a bit, but not near as much as it did before that. It was also about 4 FULL turns loose too.

[porschpow]

guess what ill be doing tonight, lol