2000 Excursion Steering Box Adjustment

[PESCAHOLIC]

My 2000 PSD 7.3 4WD Excursion with 195K miles has a chitload of play in the steering wheel.

The ball joints, hub bearings, steering arm/drag link and Pitman Arm are relatively new and I have confirmed the components beyond the steering box to be in good condition and DEFINITELY NOT the reason for the wander and play. Therefore, I am CERTAIN the problem is in the steering box and/or input coupler.

I'm not in a position to replace the steering box and coupler right away. So the question I have is, when I adjust the box how many turns do I start with? I think I've read that 1 to 1 1/4 turns is about it?

Is there anything else I should know about this particular model?

As always, thanks in advance for taking the time to respond.

[Rahn]

Just because I wanna know too

[ZMANN]

you need to verify the slop is in the box ,, I start the truck .. grab the input shaft from the column

turn it back and forth ,, and see if the sector ( where the pitman arm is bolted to ) shaft is or isn't moving .. a little lag is normal ,, you just don't go turning the adjuster 1 and 1/4 turns hap haphazardly .. mine just happen to be that much and you may have read one of My threads?

or you will be in the position to just replace the box LOL

check it out and post back ,, it's not hard to adjust however it's not "by the book "

doing it on the truck

[ol_Blue97]

i tightened my lash up about a year ago, now i NEED a box.. only went about a half turn, worked good for about 5 months and then got worse and worse. so just be prepared that it may only be a temp fix

[blue72]

When I did mine, I adjusted a 1/4 turn at a time. I think I stopped around a full turn. I too have since replaced my box. I probably had 4 to 5 inches of play in mine and cut it down to 2 to 3 inches by adjusting the box.