loose steering

[1986brownjl]

In my 86 k10 my I notice that I can turn my steering wheel a little ways before the tires actually start to turn how can I fix this

[cory d]

start by checking ball joints, tie rod's, pitman arm, drag link, idler arm blah blah blah. poly bushings will help take the floppy out. you can adjust the sector shaft of the steering box. that may help a little. also watch the frame flex at the box while some one dry steers. rag joint is also something to look at. i did poly bushings, adjusted my box and welded a jeep steering shaft and put that on. it helped allot but the box still has slop

[motornut]

u watch and have somebody wiggle the wheel, but just doing my rag joint sure helped me,
very easy, undo,slides up/off shaft
it cracked in the parts 79 it was so bad,hows yours?

[Dead Parrot]

If you have a tilt column, you can get slop in the column as well. The fix is to tighten 4 screws inside the column. Bad news is you have to remove most of the guts to get to them.

[tinydb84]

Check for a cracked frame around the steering box. Very common with these trucks