Unless the joint is completely and utterly shot, moving the shaft with your hands may not tell you the whole story because you can't get enough leverage. You should apply enough force that you are actually causing the wheels to twitch a bit. Have someone move the steering wheel (engine off, obviously) and observe; at that point you should NOT see movement in the coupling.
On the contrary, there should always be some play in the box. If it is too tight, you can get into a situation where it will fight you in an emergency manouevre (eg when you are moving the wheel rapidly) practically locking the steering off-centre. I know this from a 123 I had where the PO overtightened the box. The locking up is very disconcerting when it happens unexpectedly. The proper torque-based adjustment of the box can be achieved with normal tools (you'll need an old-fashioned, sensitive analogue torque wrench). The service procedure is fairly straightforward. D. Rich Thomas wrote: > >See below -- "The u-joint on the shaft just ahead of the box is fine" >unless there is some other coupling between it and the steering wheel. >I grabbed the shaft near the steering box and rotated it, the shaft the >other side of the coupling was rotating too, and the coupling was >tight. Car on ground. I took that to indicate the slop was in the box >s the input was moving but the output was not. > >--R _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
