Well it only took me 6 hours ... but I think I found four places where it was loose.

Did you know the steering gearbox bolts (which fix it to the body) are only supposed to be torqued to 15 ft lbs? They are only M10 or M12 bolts.

m8's i think from memory

At least the gearbox was still bolted in. I noticed last month they were not tight, but not exactly loose.


So the four places of the steering play on my 1200:

1. Nut behind the steering wheel was a little off

2. Lots of play in the gearbox. 3/4 turn. Make sure you check with steering gearbox centered.

3. The joint on the cross rod is allowing the idler arm to move up/down 2mm.

4. Steering Gear Arm was loose on the splines. Or so it seemed. I finally got the box/column out and realised it was not loose, but there was still a click-click sound of play in the gearbox. tightened it down, loosened back up and set finger tight. Centered the gearbox and rechecked it. Seems good now, but haven't been for a test drive yet.

When I first got the ute it didn't have the play in it. It came on all of a sudden, about 1/8 turn of the wheel. Part of that was the loose steering wheel. But it's surprising how much play was in the box, hope it didn't get damaged somehow.

A little job. Just checking the steering action.