The jam nut was very tight, but I was able to break it free with a half inch ratchet and 17MM socket with a few extensions on it. The screw was loose after I broke the lock nut. I used a large flat screwdriver to tighten it, and I torqued it as hard as I could tight.

I twiddled the steering column several times as I tightened it and it made no difference as far as I could tell. Ended up just torquing it down as good as I could, and then tightening back down the lock nut.

Here is a pic of the amount of play. May not be that out of the ordinary, but seems pretty loose to me.

If the box is tight and the steering ends are good, I'd look at the control arm bushings. They are old, too, right?

No, all the play is at the steering column where it connects to the steering box. The adjustment screw did not tighten up anything when I torqued it down. Same amount of play before and after the tightening.

Control arm and all the lower steering components are good and tight.

Pull back the boot and take a look. Maybe the keeper bolt is loose?

It helped with my GenII SR steering wheel play, thank you guys! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" />

Man, tightening that up really made the difference on my 89 Raider...Thanks!

Hi All, not new here but never posted much. Having a bit of trouble with the steering gear in my raider also, and it's driving me nuts...

Tightening up the adjustment did little for it, so I got a cardone reman, and now that i installed it (with a new pitman arm) it's got even more play in the center, and feels too tight at the extremes. I thought they were adjusted at the factory. Did I get a bunk gear?

Update: Bled it again this morning, adjusted the screw by a full turn in 8th turn increments and it did little for the play between input and pitman shafts, it still translates to over an inch at the wheel (and even worse than the original). It's too snug to really tighten any further, even while turning the steering shaft back and forth, and it already does not want to return from the right. The ball-screw is the only other thing that can be loose in there, right?

P.S: If You're in the market for a replacement, stay away from cardone; it came covered in a black 'paint' that had wide cracks all over it and just flaked right off, so I had to soda blast and re-paint it myself. The threads for the return line were not cleaned out or deburred properly, so when i first tried to screw it in a large metal shaving caught and embedded itself in the bottom thread of the fitting, good thing i backed it out to take a closer look and pick it out (and not just kept going thinking it's tight from the paint) or I would have buggered the threads.

Man this was an old thread. Can't believe I've had that truck this long. Mine Still sloppy and has the same play it had when I bought it. Seem to remember researching this you have to be very careful replacing pitman arm, steering box. The newer version looks the same but is different and can cause catastrophic failure.

I took this one off the road couple years ago and just drive in the yard and down the neighborhood roads every month or so.

Never got to it huh? I now almost wish I'd just kept ignoring it too, I'd gotten pretty used to it, but it got to the point where taking any longer distance on the highway gets tiring to the point of stressful.

I've had My truck since 2001 and around 120k miles iirc (shortly before I first started poking around here in the mitsu tech section), though it's been years since it was my only/daily driver. It's always been reliable, only really failed me twice to the point where it needed a tow home, (blew head gasket both times, first time got an engine rebuild, second time got ARP studs and non-jet valve head). With all the mountains etc. around here it's always been great for going out in nature, as well as the occasional snows or to tow a trailer or whatever. Plus, it's just kind of fun to drive (other than the loose steering), so I'd like to keep it going.