Loose Steering (w/ pics/video)

[TexasAggie09]

For the past several months I've been battling a loose steering wheel in my 95. It's not loose laterally (ie. from pulling on the wheel to get in the truck), but it spins probably 25 degrees in either direction before it affects my wheels. This results in wandering within the lane since I can't just hold the wheel still.

I have replaced ball joints, tie rods, drag link, steering gearbox (factory one broke). The gearbox is from Autozone and is still a Ford box (stamped on it), just rebuilt I assume. Feeling the input and output shafts, I get that free play input into the gearbox but get no output. That tells me the slack is in the gearbox. I've read into adjusting the gearbox with the allen bolt but can't for the life of me find it. Can anyone looking at this pic or video tell me where the heck it is? I thought it was the big one with a big rubber grommet around it but that doesn't seem to be it. Anyone?

[rolsmojave3]

That's it.

[1AZStang]

That is it, but be careful as I heard that if you tighten it up too much it can cause the steering wheel to lock or bind up.

[Chop]

Is that a rubber grommet on the top of torx to prevent debris?Can you pull this plug off?The nut size on mine is a 5/8 th's,don't recall the torx size.Secondly ,you might have a defective gearbox,just a thought

[TexasAggie09]

That was indeed the adjustment screw but it is a flathead screw, not a hex or torx on this particular one. I just needed a little more elbow grease to break it loose. It needed 1.5 turns to tighten all the way down then I backed off a quarter turn. The steering I'd say is about 75% better with a little bit of play still left. I have a little memory steer at the top of the wheel at neutral so I might back it off a bit more. Seems like I won't be able to get 100% of the play out but it's already a lot better. Thanks yall!