How does one know if their steering box is worn out?

I have the front end out of the demon making some changes and I'm wondering if I should be looking at my manual steering box while the engine is out. The car wanders and darts around more than I think it should with no real on center feel and it has all new steering and suspension parts (rubber- not poly)- just the box is untouched. It has been aligned a couple times with more caster (2.75 deg) but all this could be for not with me running polyglas tires. The box itself doesn't seem to have any percieivable play or problems but is there a method to tell for sure?
I'm all for rebuilding, replacing it, whatever the case may be, but I don't want to piss away the money if there is nothing really wrong with it- but how would I know?

I'd start by grabbing the Pitman arm & moving it thru its' travel & as you know you'd want it to be smooth with no binding. then I'd put in the middle of its' travel & see how much play the horizontle shaft has. There is an adjustment procedure for the 2 adjustments & in order. I'd open the plug & see what you have for lube in there

Well I went out and pulled the pitman arm off so I could spin it and it gets a little tight and slightly rough near the center but past that it's smooth and free. There is NO play in it whatsoever- so what does that mean?

If you're in this deep, why not pull it down and take a look???

Procedure is in the FSM...

Pretty straightforward...

You're in good shape, the problem is elsewhere

Quote:

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If you're in this deep, why not pull it down and take a look???

Procedure is in the FSM...

Pretty straightforward...

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Yeah....I might just do that to have a peek in there anyways- even if it is good.....
Thanks guys!