Thanks for the response, Joe. You posted a how-to like that some time ago that really helped me out alot the last time I did this. It turns out that I didn't have the sector shaft and steering centered properly. I also failed to tighten the castle nut holding the drag link to the pitman arm. It was only finger tight so I suppose that accounted for some of the weird feel.
This morning I did a complete steering adjustment step by step, exactly according to the manual. The steering is almost perfect. There is still a very tiny bit of drift but I figure it must be wear in the steering gear box. I did adjust the toe-in yesterday but I'm going to re-check it. As it is now, it drives nice and straight, there's no freeplay, and it's very resonsive. I replaced the kingpins, kingpin bushings, tie rod ends, and drag link. I didn't touch the axle or anything that would affect castor or camber. I'm really happy with the way it is now. But I was really happy with it about a year ago after I adjusted it and it gradually went back to being loose and unsteady. So we'll see if this time it lasts.
Thanks for the advice.
Last edited by joeflanagan; 11/24/2013 8:00 PM.
