Before I go buy a new steering box, are there any adjustments that can be made to tighten them up?

 

You can adjust to a point, adjustment is on top of the unit. This thread explains some stuff,

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f116...ebuild-221006/

You can go too tight and it drives funny, so when I did mine it was little at a time, but I still needed to replace as tightening didn’t take care of my slop….

 

This part of the FSM https://web.archive.org/web/20120915...12gearhous.pdf (page 10) describes the adjustment procedure. It is intended to be bench-tested with a torque wrench that can read down to 1.7 in-lbs, but it will give you the idea of how to adjust it on the truck.

 

I find it best to raise the front wheels off the ground when making the adjustment. That way you can tell if you’ve overdone it. You’ll feel the box bind without the drag of the tires on the ground.

 

Probably worn out in the center. Adding and more preload to fix the center is going to quickly blow out the less worn areas. See it frequently on saginaw boxes.

 

Well, if replacement is on the table, takes yours out and take a look.
If the gears look ok a seal kit is pretty cheap.
It's also easy to adjust when it's out.

 

Oh I’m sure it’s worn out. You can turn the wheel almost a quarter turn before it moves. Some of it is the pitman arm which is on the work bench to be replaced. Just trying to prolong the usage before I drop the money.

 

It doesn’t take much play at the box or pitman arm to translate to sloppy steering at the wheel. Your call, but it takes all of 5 minutes to open up once it’s out. Worst part is the pitman arm, and it sounds like that’s already off.

 

I just did the pitman arm and pretty certain it's a record. Tools out to tools up in 20mins. Gonna go drive it here in a bit and see what difference it made.