The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Driveline Steering Wheel Slop, where do I start

A little story here... Relevant though. I had a spring on one end of the drag link break. These springs are available for half and 3/4 ton rigs and listed for 1-tons as well as the same part number. They don't fit the 1-ton. Oh, they fit but they're nowhere near as stout as the originals.

Anyhow, I replaced the spring and in the process got the drag link a bit shorter so the steering wheel was no longer centered. It was off by about three inches. I drove it like that for several years until I got tired of the extra slop in the steering gear. The steering gear was/is properly adjusted but because the steering box was not centered it had an annoying amount of additional play/slop that couldn't be adjusted out because the steering gear would bind when it went over dead center. So I just left the adjustment alone.

After I got tired enough of the constant steering correction and had some time to work on it, I removed the drag link and swapped springs around until I got it the right length, with the smaller spring fully compressed, not per the manual. The weaker 1/2 ton spring had to be compressed more or it would compress as I turned the steering wheel. Once I got that done and all greased up, the steering wheel was centered again and didn't need any adjustment. It's much more pleasant to drive now.