This past weekend, I decided to adjust my steering box per some instructions on some posts here. While it was not really loose, it did have several inches of travel at the steering wheel rim before movement at the tires. I have been noticing that I have a bit more wandering to correct than I'd like to especially on the bumpy oil patch highways around here that haven't been repaved yet. All ball joints seem to be tight. I do have a kingpin on the drivers side that I believe has a few thousandths of play, and I'm looking into getting that worked out in the near future. After looking and feeling everything over, the steering box seemed to have the largest magnitude of free play...
I first firmed up the bearing preload, moving the adjustment about 1/8th of a turn. With the axle jacked up, the wheels turned lock to lock with very little resistance but a slightly noticeable amount over what was before the adjustment, but really its not much. Next, I adjusted the lash. I probably lost track of how far it turned as my slotted bar to hold the center slipped out a couple of times before I managed to lock the lock nut... Anyhow, I have the same resistance felt at the steering wheel from lock to lock except for about a quarter turn on either side of the "wheels straight ahead" position, where I get a slightly more noticeable resistance. My question is, should I back off the adjustment to get rid of the resistance? I did do a test drive and everything was noticeably firmer and most of the large corrections over bumps is gone again. Also, the wheels do seem to be able to self center on their own after a turn with little to no help from me, although I can notice they are a little slower for that last little bit than they were pre-adjustment. I'm thinking I should drive it a while this way and back off only if I seem to have to work to keep it on center.
Knowing the history of the truck, I'm probably the first guy to play with the adjustments since the GM Man at the plant made them 70 years and 69630 miles ago...
