Heinz, thank you for your very kind comments. I am no expert, thus I am only sharing my thinking and am ever open to an alternative line of thought, I come here to learn.
Interesting that you determine recirculating ball systems as in Merc`s have a degree of play in the straight ahead (central) steering position... which I might expect for the reasons I stated.
In worm and peg steering boxes and rack and pinion, when badly worn the wear ever occurs up to a few degrees either side of the straight ahead position as measured at the steering wheel. The reason for the wear in that particular area is that as we drive we are continually operating the steering system in that small area... Again increasing play shows up at the steering wheel and can be measured as I suggested.
If attempting to adjust any excess play out of the system in the central position caused by wear, and in the hope of returning it to match the original feel, once the adjustment has been made in the central position.... on turning the steering wheel towards lock in either direction, the steering will become tight indicating that the wear can not be adjusted out, without introducing further issues..
With no wear in the system the feel should be the same from lock to lock.
The spring loaded pad in the rack and pinion system would seem capable of compensating for differences in mesh across the range of the rack as the result of a degree of engineering tollerances, and to some degree for a small degree of wear. I also suspect the spring loaded pad can provide a degree of shock absorption in the system..?
I too have zero interest in personality clashes, unfortunately in the early years of the web without emojis, it was all to easy to misjudge meaning which seemed to happen all too often in discussion groups of all kinds creating issues..a great pity.
