So I think my steering gearbox is on it's way out. My steering has a lot of play in it when driving down the road. The car has about 114k miles on it and when I got it the gearbox was leaking really bad from the hoses and looked to have been that way for a while since there is crud caked all over it. I replaced the hoses which stopped the leaking. I checked the linkage, tie rod ends etc... and they appear to be ok as far as I can tell. I'm thinking that the loss of steering fluid may have caused damage to the internal gears or something.

Anyway, I read about trying to tighten the gearbox and went ahead and gave that a try. I made some minor adjustments until the slop went away. It's made a huge difference and the wheel feels a helluva lot better than it did. I understand that by tightening up the gearbox without adjusting the preload I could just cause excessive wear on it. I am totally prepared for that and plan on upgrading to the quicker ratio Jeep GC box if the steering starts to loosen up again.

My question is if this has "fixed" my problem can I assume that I am correct that my front end components are good and the gearbox indeed was the sol cause of this problem?

 

How's the rag joint and pitman arm? I had about 6" of play in my wheel before it would react. Did the pitman arm got a little better... did the rag joint and it's nice and tight now. no more drunk driving mobile for me. I did the idler arm as well but couldn't tell a difference in steering or reaction.

 

As far as I can tell they seem ok but I'm no expert. If it was either of those that were bad would adjusting the gearbox make the slop go away?

 

I would suspect that your steering linkages need replacing. I would also suggest checking your upper and lower "A" frame bushings. The steering box, even though the hoses were leaking is probably ok. Over tightening your worm gear preload will lead to premature steering box failure. I would not have tightened it more than 1/8 of a turn.

 

Are you saying that tightening up the gearbox could mask bad components elsewhere?

I would say I tightened it a little more than 1/8 but not much more. I'm really not worried about messing up the gearbox as I am planning on upgrading to the 12.7:1 steering gearbox anyway. I guess I should upgrade the gearbox and then bring it somewhere to check the alignment so someone that really knows what they are doing can tell me what needs to be replaced.

I can replace parts all day long but knowing what to replace is something I'm not all that good at.

 

No

 

Yes, it would mask some of it by giving you the feeling of tighter steering and taking the minimum free play out.

 

No? Yes? lol...now I feel better.

 

tightning the gearbox will not make your pitman arm any tighter if this is where the slop in steering is coming from. yeah making it tighter will make it feel like more of a race car but it's not going to remove the play in loose parts. so yes and no to a point. Besides who knows how many PO's have tightened and loosened it up before you decided to play with it too key word in Oldscutlass reply is "MASK"

 

as mentioned if you tighten down the gear box you have to be careful...those adjustments are benchmarks