The steering on my 95 GMC truck was very loose and I was affraid to drive it on the highway as the slightest cross wind seemed to blow me all over the place. The steering wheel was real sloppy and had an excessive amount of play in it.
I inspected everything on the suspension and narrowed the slop down to the gear box. I contacted the local dealer and he indicated that I had two choices. First I could replace the gear box with a reman piece for an astronomical price or I could try adjusting the steering gear box centering screw.
As Einst indicates, I had also heard the adjusting the gear box was a big NO-NO. I decided to adjust the box any way just to see if the box really was the problem and it worked. Now the car tracks straight, returns to center, and is stable enough to drive on the highway.
All may be fine now but I am still planning to replace the box. The dealer explained the risks associated with adjusting the box as follows: During normal use, the gear teeth develop a wear pattern on the contact surfaces. Adjusting the centering screw will shift the gear alignment and change where the gears contact one another. This will temporarily correct the slopinesss in the box but you can run into problems when a second wear pattern forms on the gear teeth. The problems could be a total loss of steering, steering lock up, or varying steering forces.
I want everone to be safe and consider this topic to be very serious. If the dealer supplied info is not correct please voice your concerns so that we all can benefit..
RAJ
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1969 TA RAIII M40 Auto Cameo White/ Std Blue Int
1970 TA RAIII M21 4-spd Lucy Blue/Std Black Int
1971 TA 455 HO M22 4-Spd Lucy Blue/Deluxe White Int
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