Before I even think about touching the steering box, I remove and inspect the tie rod ends and the drag link ends. Then I check for play in the king pins.
Then the leaf spring bushings.
Those items are not sealed from the environment and wear out fairly rapidly especially if they were not lubed regularly or inspected sometime during their long life.
It is much easier to check and fix all of these parts than it is to monkey with a steering box. Save the steering box for last. You may well find that all of your slop is coming from the sum of all of the slop in other components.
(kthomas, if you have already checked everything on my list for wear, disregard. I am just trying to spread the gospel to everyone.)
