Today, I felt like I was channeling @edsnova and the obstacles he's had to overcome.
Maybe his ears or the little hairs on the nape of his neck were twitching.
I've been putting off doing a very slight worm (front) adjustment on my steering box because, well, I'm inherently lazy during Covid and haven't gotten around to it and it wasn't that bad, after all.....
But today was different..... I took Pearl out for a spin to the next town over (Upton, where absolutely nothing ever happened and no one important ever came from) where I heard that "Cousin's Lobstah Truck" from Bahsten was set up selling both Maine-style (cold Lobstah and Mayo) and Connecticut-style (warm Lobstah and Buttah) Lobstah rolls and on the way home I thought, 'How hard can it be? You've already got the tools - It's like a ten minute job!'
It's not like it was wicked bad loose, but compared to the Rack and Pinion in my Rogue it felt a little loose, even though the play was only about 3/4" - Enough to irritate someone with OCD (like me).
My "special" Steering Box tools consist of a plumber's adjustable drain wrench (for the steering box front locknut for the worm adjuster) and a special 90º angled 'wrench' I made to fit into the 52-point hex-ish front adjuster. (I'm kidding about the 52 points - it's more like 24 or maybe 18).
Anyway, I got the locknut loosened in about a minute of messing with the adjustable drain wrench but when I put my specially made worm-adjuster that I found in the kit up there into the hex adjuster it was waaaay too small. Oops! Guess I made that one for some other job! Here's the old and new wrenches for width comparison on the left:
Guestimating that it needed a flat piece of metal about 1-1/8" wide to cram into the hex hole and turn it, I scrummaged in my scrap box (I know Ed has one of those, too) and found a piece of flat, 1/8" thick metal stock 1-1/4" wide and got it bent to 90º on one end (gentle pounding with my BFH) and then cut it down until I could just get it squeeked up in there between the steering box and the car body and into the hex hole to turn it. That all took around 40 minutes of bending and making it narrower and narrower until it fit tightly. So after getting the car up on jack stands and making a new tool, I'm into this now for over an hour - Way longer than the original 10 minute estimate - and still haven't adjusted anything.
I literally gave the adjuster about 1/16 of a turn tighter, held it with the new wrench and re-tightened the locknut, all the while listening to a seemingly endless parade of old "Hall and Oates" 70's classics. The same era that gave us those terrible "Earth tone" colors on so many cars that we would like to forget today, and other memorable songs from people we all would like to forget (just click on "really bad songs of the 1970's")
Anyway, if you are yearning to adjust your steering box and feeling brave, here's what you might buy for front adjuster tools: A piece of 1/8" thick flat barstock 1-1/4" wide and a plumber's adjustable drain wrench (Home Depot/Lowes plumbing tools) and you'll be out about $20 bucks. You'll need a bench grinder (OK) or an angle grinder (better) to make the adjuster tool. The top adjustment screw, for the roller, seldom needs adjustment but you can get at the locknut with a regular wrench and turn the adjuster with a 90º flat blade screw driver, so no big deal.
Here is the lineup of both tools (ignore the small wrench at the bottom). I labeled the new wrench so I don't lose it this time.....
