play in steering wheel

[ahardb0dy]

Alignment shop owner told me today I have a lot of play in my steering wheel, he said the tie rod ends and idler look fine that he thinks the play is in the gear box. My steering wheel does have play in it and I don't see anything moving under the front end so, what do you think about the gear box causing play?? I haven't heard of this as being a common problem before??

[adamzan]

The fsm has a spec of how much play should be in the wheel, it could be the guy at the shop is a youngin' who's only used to dealing with rack and pinion based cars lol.

[ahardb0dy]

He's not that young and he also told me he used to have a 4 door PF, so he should know.

[1994SEV6]

Mine has a good bit of play.

When I go over bumps it wobbles and flails around a little bit. Not too bad, I just have to lightly grip. It's not dangerous or anything.

If I'm still, I can move the steering wheel a few inches before the wheels move. When I had the truck jacked up, I could move the wheels manually a little bit before the steering wheel locked.

 

Some guy at some shop I went too said one of my tie rod ends was blown. It's still straight as could be, and it doesn't have any play in it.

 

Eh. I was planning on replacing most of my front end components in the spring anyway.

[Tungsten]

How much play? Up to an inch is fine.