My steering components have begun to fail on me after 30 years of my '95 being on and off the road through various ownership stints. Steering symptoms as follows: loose, wobbly, with play at the center; puckered a$$ while driving, and an intense feeling of paranoia at the sight of bumps, potholes, basically anything that wasn't freshly paved. You could feel the death wobble creeping in slowly, the steering wheel would oscillate mildly with certain hard bumps at first, but this eventually (d)evolved.

Lower steering shaft was the first to go - splines in the u-joint had worn nearly flat in spots, and allowed my steering wheel to turn close to 45 degrees(!!!) prior to engaging the wheels when it failed on me. The only new replacements on the market are of questionable quality. They come with torx bolts (5/16"x20 which is not a standard hardware store size) and I have read about 2 incidents where these shafts have totally failed on their owner (pinch bolts rattled loose and shaft disengaged from splines - thankfully everyone survived). So far mine have held steady with some loctite, but it's somewhat of a concern long-term. Part is QME500040. I highly recommend replacing just the lower u-joint on the OEM shaft if possible, as you can get the OEM u-joint for a reasonable price from Atlantic British and you avoid the new, sketchy version.

Next I had to replace the drag link and track bar along with TREs because the lock nuts were seized and my HD Rovertym drag link was bent which I feel is an impressive feat because that thing is thick as hell. I also removed the steering damper as it was shot and I wanted to suss out all of my steering issues before replacing. At this point I also got new tires - from 33" down to 32" - and an alignment. Naturally, this triggered the death wobble. I had disturbed the delicate equilibrium that mechanically worn components find with one another. Proceeded to review the tech section and work through the checklist. I decided to adjust the swivel pin preload and simultaneously rebuild the swivel pins, the kits are pretty cheap and installation is simple. Didn't help much, and a note on that to follow.

I then worked on adjusting the backlash with the nut on the steering box. I had about 1/2 a turn to bottoming out the screw, and it made zero difference in steering play at the input shaft. I had a decent amount of freeplay on either side of center that wasn't going anywhere. So I loosened the allen screw back up and tightened the lock nut - poorly, apparently, because I lost power steering on the highway coming home from a camping trip. The lock nut worked its way loose and sprayed everything down with ATF. Got her settled in the driveway and took a break, because the relationship was becoming toxic and I needed a weekend or two off. I went ahead and ordered a used box and PS pump from Will Tillery so I'd have the parts - if you're reading this because you're having similar problems, contact Will before spending an absurd amount on a new OEM box or going cheap with a new or reman of unknown quality. While my PS steering "failure" was a result of inadequate tools to torque the locknut to spec, I felt my steering box was worn to an unsafe degree and a conversation on the D2 forum seemed to confirm my suspicion. Will got the parts to me literally the day after I paid him, but I'm only about 2 hours away. The box I ended up with is the Adwest, made in England, that Atlantic British sells for $4100 - he included the drop arm.

Once I removed the old box, I found that the splines on the old input shaft were marred pretty badly in addition to the excess freeplay. This was a recipe for trouble, and I'm glad my f**kup happened because it was the impetus to replace the box which could've failed catastrophically, I guess. Everything is nice and tight now, to the point where I need to replace the shims I removed when adjusting my swivel preload (also FYI, if you replace the swivel pins using a rebuild kit that includes new bearings and washers, don't remove shims. From my reading, the bearing gets crushed over time which is why removing shims tightens your steering - the pin gets into better contact with the crushed bearing thus tightening preload to within spec. Replacing the bearing AND removing shims will get your steering too tight most likely, so you'll be redoing the whole shebang just to replace the shims you removed).

A few notes for anyone who may face this repair:

Don't bother jacking up your truck unless you don't have room to crawl underneath - the drag link can be removed with wheels on the ground, it just takes a few extra whacks on the drop arm to release.

The adjusting nut (19mm, allen screw is 6mm) on top of my old steering box was torqued down more than any nut or bolt I've ever wrenched on aside from axle nuts. I think RAVE spec is 60nm/44ft lbs but it was remarkably seized. It took 5+ seconds of hammering from my big boy Dewalt impact to get it moving after multiple soaks with PB.

You must remove the two pinch bolts on either side of the u-joint which connects to the input shaft in order to release the lower steering shaft, you cannot just loosen them. Soak the splines in PB or some other solvent, and use a pry bar plus your free hand to slide/wiggle the u-joint off the input shaft. A few taps on the pry bar with a hammer may be necessary to get the lower shaft moving off the input shaft. If you're just rebuilding and replacing your box, don't accidentally mar the splines on the input shaft by hammering the pry bar into it.

The return and supply hose connections on top of the box were awkward to remove with the space constraints, and different sizes - I think the return hose was a 5/8 and the supply was a 9/16 or vice versa (RAVE actually specifies 14mm and 16mm, but for some reason I was having trouble getting a good grip with the metric wrenches). I had to unbolt the box from the chassis and move it to get space to loosen the supply connection.

4 (19mm) bolts to free the box from the chassis, and 2 (also 19mm I think) bolts to the tie bar (not sure if that's the right term, pulled from RAVE). I left the drop arm attached as my replacement had one. You will absolutely need some extra muscle to remove the box unless you're Mr Universe or you remove a bunch of extraneous hoses, the drop arm, etc. - no thank you. Someone underneath to press up as you pull, while you both maneuver the box and drop arm around the obstacles. I had the old out and the new in its place in 5 minutes with help from a friend after struggling to no avail for 30 minutes the day before by myself.

Replace the 2 (19mm) bolts and nuts which mount the box to the tie bar and start the threads - do not tighten, just get them mated. Manipulate the box (I did this from underneath, it can be done alone) until you can locate one of the chassis bolts into the box and start the threads, then locate/thread the bolt diagonal from the one you started just like you're threading lug nuts. The rest is cake. Box to chassis/tie bar is tightened to 81nm/60ft lbs. Replace hose connections - and replace o-rings first. I did not because mine were still intact and pliable, but it's advised and I expect I'll regret my lazy decision. Centralize drop arm with a punch or screwdriver or whatever fits - this is VERY important if you like centered steering. Make sure steering wheel is straight ahead, then reconnect the lower steering shaft to the input shaft and torque down the pinch bolts on the u-joint to 25nm/18 ft lbs. Finally, with the drop arm still centered replace the drag link and torque the nut to 40nm/30 ft lbs. I found that my steering wheel was notably off center with the old box even after I had centralized the drop arm and steering when replacing other components and getting an alignment, so I had to extend my drag link a bit when reconnecting by threading out the TRE until it located in the drop arm. This may not be the appropriate procedure, so hopefully I didn't throw my alignment off.

Double, then triple check all connections.

Fill up reservoir with Dexron III ATF (or Valvoline Maxxlife ATF in red bottle, compatible with Dexron III) for Discovery 1. Disco 2s take power steering fluid, but everything above should be more or less the same. Start truck once fluid level has settled to get it sucked in, and top off fluid as needed until system is filled. I started/stopped my truck 3 or 4 times before my fluid level was good. RAVE suggests bleeding as a final step, which involves loosening the bleeder with truck running until fluid weeps out and then retightening.

Apologies for a wall of text, but I've spent multiple months digging through every Rover forum I can find while chasing steering issues. Bits and pieces are scattered, so I wanted to consolidate what I've gathered for any future owners struggling with steering issues. It's really unclear how much play in the box is too much from my reading - just know that if you can grip the u-joint connected to the input shaft and wiggle it back and forth, that's too much play. When the old box was out it was clear that the gears had significant slop before they engaged. Once I get both swivel pins rebuilt and shimmed appropriately (as I said above, just rebuild with a kit that includes new bearings and washers and don't remove any shims) I will hopefully be done with my steering saga and my wobble will be neutralized.

 

FYI. Various thicknesses of shims can be had from Rovers North, for adjusting swivel bearing preload.