Well, I had my frontend aligned after replacing every moving part but on the drive home I noticed that the car wanders all over the road. I have 1/4 wheel play. I can tirn the steering wheel 1/4 before the wheels start to move. The manuel sterring box was rebuilt and all other componets are brand new. I searched and found the article called "In vehicle camaro manuel steering gear adjustment. My question is how much play shoudl ther be before I start mucking with this. Nothing has gone right on this restore and I am only half done with another waiting in the wings. I must be nuts. Still trouble shooting a dead battery every morning so I thought I would walk away from that and take care of the first alignment and now this :-(
Something sooner or later will go right!
Thansk guys, your helping me sane though this!!!

There should be no play after adjustment. You may find after adjustment, there will be no play, then, turning the wheel to a direction, it tightens up.

This is due to the gears being worn at center more than off-center. Adjust for no play at off-center, then turn wheel to center, if more than 1/4 inch of play at center, then need a box with new gears, IMO.

The Steering box has been rebuilt so I assume I need to follow the Worm Bearing Adjustment procedure first then the Pitman Shaft Adjustment procedure. This all new to me.

one would think if the box was "rebuilt" these things and more would be done, and it would be tight. Suggest you lock the steering wheel in place (use "the club!") support the car under the lower ball joints, and start pulling and prying things to find your play.

IKf you're talking a 1/4 turn of the wheel before anything happens, that is a LOT, you should see it underneath.

Hello again JimM, Just another problem with my restore, so many!
Well I bought the box as rebuilt. So who knows. But I move the steering wheel
quite a bit before the pitman arm even begins to move the linkage. So may be I was taken and this box is not rebuilt. Someone just selling it to pay for PS upgrade. I'll try to do the pitman shaft adjustment first and see what that does. Thanks as always for your support!

My manual box was doing about the same thing after I rebuilt it. I didn't have the wright torque wrench to measure the drag so I adjusted it by feel and it sucked. I finally bought the wrench and adjusted it in the car by the gm service manual procedure and it makes a world of difference. Most people say its more accurate to adjust it out of the car, of you can do it this way your probably better off. Good Luck.

Dave69Z,
What procedure is this. Because my steering does suck! I did the pitman arm adjustment but still way to much play. Thanks for the hope of a non-wandering Z.

Only time I ever had that much wheel play (actually, I was going about 1/2 turn of play!) was when the rag joint started letting go... Thing had ripped in half and only one bolt was still holding the sucker together!

My '80 non-P/S P/U had a third of a turn of play AND the screen wire reinforced rag-joint rubber washer is FINE! In fact, I reused it, it was that good.

I bought a rebuilt box from Autozone.

But right, my car's rubber rag-joint was shot!!

pdq67