steering relay keeps striping teeth

The splined teeth on the top of my s3 steering relay striped a few weeks back which i put down to old age. i went out and purchased a brand new relay and top arm. Fitted it ass described with the lower and upper arm at 90 degrees to each other. I went away this weekend and to my dismay the teeth have sheered again.
The first thing that came to mind is did i do it up correctly to which im fairly confident that i torqued it up.
I would realy apreciate some pointers if anyone has any ideas.

Thankyou Adam

Where did you get the relay from? There used to be some real cheap and nasty ones about.

an independant landrover garage who ordered it in for me, from where i dont know. i see what you meen tho i would be surprised if it were that as it had only been used for 3 days before it went.
Thanks for the surgestion and i will look into that posibility. i did ponder myself if it may have missed the heat treetment process. adam

what did the steering feel like before the relay "stripped its teeth" any chance that youve got a problem with the swivels,uj's,railko bushes etc being overly stiff ,and making the relay hard to turn ????

ive made a break threw, of sorts, the splitters of metal i found on top of the relay were actualy just the paint of the new top arm therefore i took it back appart and double checked it was all ok, the splines are fine and hunky dorey so i reassembled it with new niylock nuts.
However my steering wheel seems to be central in the forward position for a while then after a few heavy handed turns it becomes off centre though the landy is still going straight (by 5cm ish either way, sometimes to the left and some times to the right) but never further than that.
Before my recent work carried out, my steering was a rite shambles presumably where the arm had been slipping on the relay. therefore i have little to compare it to. I understand that land rover steering is vague to say the leest but does anyone else find this paticular oddity?
I am very concerned at the safety aspect which meens im taking it to the garage this saturday to get it checked out. Any feedback from other landy drivers before i go would be most appreciated.

Adam

check all yer bj's and wheel bearings and swivel preload and steering box adjustment