Play (looseness) in steering wheel

[Tom in seattle]

I’ve read several old posts about looseness in steering.  In my case I have power assist.  My steering wheel has about 1/2 inch play which does not result in any movement of the steering linkages. I’ve read that this looseness may not be in the steering gear, but somewhere upstream from it. 

How can I determine if the slack is in the gearbox or somewhere between the steering wheel and the box?

[Jonny B]

Tom,

The search function is your friend. Use the "Search" function in the string of options starting with "Home" it will search the whole forum. I used "looseness steering" (without the quotes) as the search string and got less than a page of items. Some good reading there, that may help.

[ja17]

Have someone jiggle the wheel back and fourth about a 1/2'" each way and look for where the play is happening. Use a flash light and start at the steering coupling under the hood.

[Mike Hughes]

If you can hear a slight "clicking" noise from under the dash down near the pedals, then you might have to replace the steering coupling at the base of the steering column.