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Excerpted from another thread here....
A mistake made by some wise to only adjust the sector, when — in fact — the worm needed to be adjusted also. We cannot be too critical of the people who only adjusted the sector because usually that is all that was necessary. The symptom of play in the steering, perceived at the steering wheel — assuming all of our steering linkage is tight — is generally caused by lash in the sector.
Procedurally, the sector adjustment is much easier, largely because it only involves a jam that and an adjusting screw. To adjust the worm preload, you have to have the sector backed way out so it does not influence the worm before you adjust the worm shaft bearing preload.
A steering gear that has had proper lubricant and not in some way abused probably can respond well to a sector adjustment. If it is a high mile box that has been run low on lubricant and also abused then bearing cone and cup issues could greatly complicate the situation and also prevent a proper worm shaft bearing preload.
The steering gear sector adjustment should occur at the center of the range of motion. That's where the lash will be the least — under normal circumstances. You can learn quite a bit about the box if you make a sector adjustment and then rotate through a full range of motion. If it has has rough spots or it tightens up where it shouldn't, that tells you that you have other problems.
In actual practice, unless I had reason to believe the steering box was in pretty bad shape, I would begin with the sector adjustment, evaluate how it turns through its full range of motion, and if that was OK I would test drive. If that solved the problem I would not concern myself with worm shaft bearing preload adjustment. If that did not solve the problem, I would try backing the sector out, adjusting the worm, readjusting the sector, and trying again.
search term: steering gear adjustment
A mistake made by some wise to only adjust the sector, when — in fact — the worm needed to be adjusted also. We cannot be too critical of the people who only adjusted the sector because usually that is all that was necessary. The symptom of play in the steering, perceived at the steering wheel — assuming all of our steering linkage is tight — is generally caused by lash in the sector.
Procedurally, the sector adjustment is much easier, largely because it only involves a jam that and an adjusting screw. To adjust the worm preload, you have to have the sector backed way out so it does not influence the worm before you adjust the worm shaft bearing preload.
A steering gear that has had proper lubricant and not in some way abused probably can respond well to a sector adjustment. If it is a high mile box that has been run low on lubricant and also abused then bearing cone and cup issues could greatly complicate the situation and also prevent a proper worm shaft bearing preload.
The steering gear sector adjustment should occur at the center of the range of motion. That's where the lash will be the least — under normal circumstances. You can learn quite a bit about the box if you make a sector adjustment and then rotate through a full range of motion. If it has has rough spots or it tightens up where it shouldn't, that tells you that you have other problems.
In actual practice, unless I had reason to believe the steering box was in pretty bad shape, I would begin with the sector adjustment, evaluate how it turns through its full range of motion, and if that was OK I would test drive. If that solved the problem I would not concern myself with worm shaft bearing preload adjustment. If that did not solve the problem, I would try backing the sector out, adjusting the worm, readjusting the sector, and trying again.
search term: steering gear adjustment