Thanks, Tom. I don't mean to overplay this, but as I think I mentioned it is important for the sector gear and the worm to be centered when the wheels are straight ahead. The sector gear has 5 teeth on it. And those teeth are taper cut with the highest point being right in the middle...that being the 3rd tooth. When that 3rd tooth is in dead center of the worm gear and the steering box is adjusted correctly, your steering will be where the engineers wanted it to be. If you rotate the wheel by 10~15 degrees from dead center (to straighten the wheel), you'll either be climbing up one side or the other of the worm. You want it centered and snug when straight ahead. In fact, I usually use an inch torque wrench to adjust these. When I pass through the center, the torque wrench will deflect showing the high point and that's the middle. We don't know what's been done to the steering gear, so we don't know where in relation to center your steering wheel is. So...if you want to just pull the steering wheel and rotate until it is pointing the right way, you can do that. If your steering gets sort of lazy and sloppy feeling, then you know things aren't centered any longer. These trucks have a tendency to wander. If the caster is out they have a tendency to wander around like a drunk billy goat. And if the two gears aren't in the right spot, the same thing can occur. As you turn your wheel left and right, the clearance between the sector and the worm starts increasing. And that is to give you freedom of motion.
Here is one way to find the middle: chock the rear wheels well and put on the parking brake. Jack the front end up so that both wheels are off the ground. Carefully and gently turn the steering wheel all the way to the right. Put a small bit of masking tape somewhere on the steering wheel that will give you a way to count revolutions and then carefully and gently turn the wheel all the way to the left. Count the revolutions. Now divide the number of revolutions by 2 and turn the wheel back to the right until you get to that point. At that point, you will be halfway through the arc. Where is the steering wheel pointing now? If it is off by 10~15 degrees, then it suggests somebody had the wheel installed incorrectly. If the steering wheel is pointing straight, then maybe we need to look at some other things.
