Thread: steering box issues

So the other day I was moving the Perentie and had to do a few lock-to-lock basically while rocking it back and forth in the same spot (I wanted the wheel a full lock so I could check my rust hole in the footwell).
When I went to move the car again, I noticed that there was a huge amount of play in the wheel (easily 2" each way for any load was felt)and that the steering felt much lighter than usual.

I found the 'steering free play" section of the manual, checked there wasn't any movement in the pitman arm by getting underneath it and pulling on it (no movement at all) and tightened up the steering box by turning the screw on top until there was no more free play in the steering wheel.

The steering got heavy again and the free play was gone so I thought that was it. Yesterday I had to park in a tight spot and again had to do a fair bit of maneuvering at full lock and low speed.
As I drove off, I noticed that the steering was very light again and that a fair bit of the slack has returned.

<edit> forgot to mention, when I first adjusted the steering box, it tightened up with the wheel off centre, which it never was before (don't know if that is relevant to anything)


The box itself is full of oil, and there is no movement in the pitman arm.
can anyone shed any insight into what is wrong?

heh. Armstrong