.
@ALB , that's it!
About halfway down is the post I remember reading - a detailed explanation of how to rebuild an old steering box by a guy who did that for 30 years.
His point is that old steering boxes are almost always rebuildable - the parts that usually wear are replaceable and the body, gears, and shafts of the box are usually sound.
But it's the last part of his (very long) post that's relevant here, so I'm pasting it below. It's about making sure the box is centered internally before hooking it up to anything else:
"... You have a rebuilt box but you're not done yet. The following step is critical and always overlooked.
Remember the 'notchy' part when the steering box is at center? Install the steering box in the car and align it so it's dead-nuts center. Now install the steering shaft and wheel so the steering wheel is perfectly straight and not off to one side or the other when the steering box is centered. Now have the car aligned so the wheels point straight when the steering wheel is pointed straight.
The alignment goes to hell when people lower their cars and align them themselves. They often get the toe in set right but they don't always get the steering wheel centered when the wheels are toed properly. When confronted with that scenario people usually just remove/reinstall the wheel to straighten it out. Well the crooked steering wheel was saying that the steering box wasn't set straight and re-positioning the wheel only covered up the problem instead of correcting it.
That tightness when the box is straight preloads the steering ever so slightly when the wheels are straight. I can guarantee that a good number of you have your steering boxes installed ever so slightly off center--that's really common on lowered or raised cars. An off-center box will feel like junk even if it's perfect. This is experience talking here. I can almost guarantee that those 'junk' TRW boxes were installed that way. At least when I was doing boxes those TRW pieces were top-shelf parts. Preparation and installation are key to a good steering setup.
This may or may not work for you but it worked for me hundreds of times. The steering box in my Thing is one of my rebuilds and 15 years later it's as tight as the day it was made..."
.