So how vague is too vague, vaguely speaking?

The steering on my Disco is very vague. Yes I know they were from standard AND I have a 2" lift AND 33" tyres... but... she's done 170k so I'm thinking things are probably somewhat worn... has anyone replaced the steering box with a new or recon unit and if so have they noticed any difference?

Funky Kipper tightened the bolt on top of the steering box on mine by 1 full turn and it made a huge difference.

Steering box, swivals, track rod end & bearings can all have an affect, best to get the front lifted, have a friend give it a side to side and up and down shake and see if there is any play, if there is no visable play put it back on the floor and se how much the steering wheel turns before the wheels turn, the later would be a steering box adjustment needed...

Thanks guys. There are new HD track and steering rods, there's no play in the swivels and I've recently adjusted the bearings so there's no play there. I wasn't aware there was adjustment in the box itsself. What's involved in adjusting the steering box?

If you look at the top of the steering box, you'll see a hex adjuster screw surrounded by a lock nut, 15mm, I think. Crack the lock nut off and turn the hex nut clockwise for 1 full turn. Tighten the lock nut back up and see how you get on with that.

TBH I have replaced all components in my disco steering and suspension and run 30.5 tyres and have 2" lift and mine still feals very vague, every part I replaced improved matters but its still vague compared to my standard unmodified disco with orriginal parts from new and 65k on clock. I'm contimplating going back to standard.....have you changed your radius arms to caster corrected? I changed mine to "bent" cranked orriginal units but am skeptic about how good they are. Before I give up and return to orriginal I might try some QT units or simaler....just a thaught.

Well I tried tightening the adjuster and it's removed the excess play, unfortunately I was a little too over zealous and now the steering is stiff and doesn't self centre

So if you back it off a midge you should be o.k.

when you adjust steering box ,it must be in central position and just take out freeplay as felt by rocking steering linkage by hand at the same time ,it will damage box if too tight, you undo a few turns then adjust up again if too tight

Well I got my spanners on it again at lunchtime and undid the adjuster by a turn, so about 1.5 turns in from where it was originally. The freeplay's all but eliminated and the box is nice and smooth with no binding. I may yet add another half turn.