Early Steering box 1971 Adjustment (1 Viewer)

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May 2, 2018
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Removed the steering box side cover to fix a leaking gasket. Upon putting the side cover back on, I was informed that the steering box adjusting screw needs to be correctly set in order to pre-load the sector shaft inside. I did not measure lbs/ft or count the threads of the screw prior to taking it out.

There are a few threads that talk about correctly setting the pre-load on this adjustment screw, one of which is thoroughly explained in @Coolerman WEBSITE , but they all seemed to have adjusted this screw with the entire steering system removed from the fj40.

My questions is, can I properly adjust the screw without having to remove the entire steering-box setup from the fj40?

For now, I am able to turn the adjust screw until I feel it hit against the sector shaft inside of the steering box. Is this all that I should tighten it to? Or, do I need to back it off until it doesn't make contact with the sector shaft? Just want to double make sure.

After that, I know im suppose to tighten the lock nut to 37-60lbs/ft as per the FSM.

Picture of adjustment screw on the side of my steering box. Thanks for the help! :cheers:

STEERING BOX.jpg
 
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do it up until you only have about 2" of freeplay at the wheel before it moves anything. There is a measurement of steering wheel freeplay that toyota specify buy i cant remember exactly what it is at the moment. The steering will get tight if you go too far
 
According to the FSM, "tighten the adjustment screw until the steering shaft feels heavy to turn. Then loosen the screw 1/4 to 1/2 turn and torque the lock nut." I would just pop the drag link end off the pitman arm and adjust it in the truck. Or jack up the front with the steering connected and tighten it until its extra heavy to turn.
 
I went ahead and jacked up the rig with both front tires off and tightened the bolt to see if I felt any "heavyness" on the steering wheel.

Nothing.

Lowered it back down with both tires on and tightened it. Obviously it felt more "heavy" since the tires gave resistance as they moved side to side on the pavement, but I think I found the correct spot. I backed the adjusting nut a bit more than 1/2 turn after that. Steering seems equal when doing a hard left and hard right on a stand still.

Nothing appears to feel like it's binding and Hopefully this will be good enough and damage to my steering box won't be in the near future. Thank you for the help, guys.
 
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