I have a 97 2500 and it has about 3 inches of play in the steering wheel. I have tried adjusting the steering gear and it didn't do anything at all. Is there some other adjustment i can make to take the play out? I've had all my ball joints and u-joints replaced along with the track bar and steering gear within the last 2 months and I'm completely stumped. Any suggestions?

 

Welcome to DTR

When you say you tried to adjust the steering gear what did you do?

Anyone notice da BEARS colors? Hmmmmm?

 

I loosened the nut on top, used an allen to tighten it down about 1/2-3/4 a turn and tightened it back up.

 

heres a tip . a friend of mine told me that you need the older steering box around 1994 as dodge changed to this newer style which is made to have that wierd play right in it from start !!! i have a 1998 ram and it is same !!
anyway he works at the dodge dealership in my town and im also a mechanic so we swap stories all the time and these guys at the dealership are pretty smart so id do your own investigating . anyway hope this helps !!!

 

I have a 94' and it has the same play in the wheel, so don't count on getting a 94' box and fixing the problem. I here they make a conversion kit for the 3rd gen boxes though.

 

My Dad just bought a 97 with the same problem. I found a link somewhere in this forum that gave detailed instructions on how to fix this. I believe it was at Genos garage. The problem is slack at the input shaft. Get your steering wheel at 11 0-clock position. Take out the pinch bolt that holds the steering shaft coupler on. Pry the shaft off the splines,and move it to the side. On the input end of the steering box, there is a large locknut with ears that you can hit with a long, flat nose punch. It is threaded onto a threaded plug with 2 holes in the face for a spanner wrench. When you remove the locknut, the plug will probably come with it. Mine did. Make sure the locknut turns easily on the plug, lube it well and mess with it till it is free. I do not have the spanner wrench, so I drove a 3/16 machine screw about 1 1/2 inches long into each hole. Again, lube threads well and screw the plug into the sector until it bottoms. I did mine by hand with the 3/16 screws. Back it out .350 or about 1/4" and mark it in relation to the gear box because when you tighten the locknut it will tighten with it. If it feels tight when you drive it, or seems to wander, loosen the allen till it's free.

 

Ran out of room, so will finish here. This made the steering in our truck feel like a new box. NO PLAY AT ALL. You may have to mess with the allen a bit till you get it right. Mine was too tight, and I think I had to back it out almost as much as I initially turned it in trying to get rid of the slack before adjusting the input. Hope this helps.

 

keep going. it should tighten up. mine took a whole turn to snug up.
stop when the play goes away.
road test - when you make a 90 deg turn and let go of the wheel, it should straighten up on its on. if it doesn't, its too tight.