Steering Gear Adjustments

Important: Any steering gear adjustment is made only as a correction and not as a periodic adjustment.

For proper adjustment, remove the steering gear from the vehicle. Drain the power steering fluid from the gear. Mount the gear in a vise and make the following adjustments.

The steering gear requires two adjustments:
^ The worm thrust bearing preload
^ The pitman shaft over-center preload adjustment

The worm thrust bearing preload is controlled by the amount of compression force exerted by the adjuster nut assembly on the flat races.

The pitman shaft over-center preload is controlled by the pitman shaft adjuster screw, which determines the clearance between the rack piston and the pitman shaft sector teeth.

Important: Adjust the worm thrust bearing preload first, then adjust the pitman shaft over-center preload.