[DeTomaso] steering slop

[Justin Greisberg]

As I sort out the many minor problems that make my 74 GTS restoration less than perfect (things like leaking head gaskets, problematic EFI, door windows that just wont go, A fuel gauge that keep reading zero until I figured out I actually had no gas in the tank!), I have come to the steering.  There is a little too much play in the steering.  Some of that play is in the rack - I rebuilt the rack myself (added a new rack bushing and replaced the rubber bellows), and when I was done there was a bit of play in the gears.  But, based on the advice of many people here on the forum, I left the spacers on the preload device behind the rack just as stock, rather than add more preload to decrease play.So, I know there will be a little play.  But there is more play in the steering column, at the "slip joint" where one piece of linkage slides into another.  I tried to pinch this in a vice, which really did not work, and I added rolled up sections of aluminum foil to take up the space but still allow it to slide in an accident, but this loosened up quickly.
Any ssuggestions?  I could weld the two pieces of slip tubing together so no more play, but it seems nice to try to preserve the sliding feature for safety.  Although I doubt I would survive a collision of that magnitude in this car...  The thought of that steering wheel hitting me in the chest is really scary.   Justin