OK.... I've been trying to get my car to "feel" right. Front end feels loose to me. I've replaced, inner and outer tie rod ends, moog idler arm, and tightened the PS box to where it seems pretty good.

I found the wheel bearings to be a bit loose, so I tightened them up just a little, I didn't want to go to far since they are of unknown age, and may or may not hold up. I will replace those along with lower ball joints in the future.... but for now, the car off the ground, I can grab the tire and shake and tilt, and not much happens at all (feels nice and tight) but if I jerk it left to right quickly I can feel slop, and looked up under the car while I did this, and the slop is in the inner ball joint connection to the relay rod and associated connections to the pitman and idler arm. I can see the relay rod shift angularly as I jerk the wheel left to right. These connections are all tight as can be as far the nuts go.

Now.. I don't have much experience with these lawn tractor type setups, and I just wonder if this is normal, and I need to forget about any preciseness and just dream of a rack setup, or is there something that I might be doing wrong here?

At first I thought, maybe my relay rod is upside down and backwards, but I couldn't figure how that would help at all, and then I found pictures of another suspension that was the same way, so I guess that's the way she goes.

 

tire pressures ok?

Mine felt terrible until I added air.

 

I've found that the pitman arm is a big contributor to steering slop in these cars. I would look there next.

 

OK. Tire pressures are a little low. Tires are also old and have squishy sidewall. I'm sure that contributes some to the feel. It also sits funny because of worn out springs/shocks. This might be a factor as well.

Pitman arm. I don't see much play there, but it's hard to tell. I can't really have my hand on it and move the wheel at the same time. I remember thinking that it felt pretty stiff when I replaced the tie rod ends. I also remember thinking that the tie rod ends were in pretty good shape when I replaced them. I only did it because they are cheap and I wanted to know when it was done. The only component that was noticeably worn was the idler arm.

But still... maybe the pitman arm is sloppy, because for sure I can move the wheels back and forth and there is slop as mentioned in the OP. That whole relay rod moves upwards and downwards in a rotational fashion before becoming solid and moving the opposite wheel.

It seems the pitman arm is hard to replace. True?

 

The pitman shouldnt be hard to replace if you get at it from under the car. Im not sure of the size of the nut thats on there but i know that it is BIG.

How did you tighten your PS box?