great post from glutamodo on thesamba i wanted to copy here for someday when I need it…
Yes, VW “worm and roller” steering boxes are in fact adjustable. One adjustment is on top of the box, that’s the “roller” adjustment, and is accessed under the driver’s side inspection plate under the spare tire in the trunk. The other adjustment (the “worm” adjusment) is at a 90° angle to the bottom/front of the top one and you can only get at that one from below the car. The top one is usually the only adjustment most people mess with. (jack the car up so the weight is off the front wheels, then loosen the locknut and tighten the adjuster down til the play in the steering wheel decreases, but not so far down that the steering wants to bind anywhere along it’s range of motion.) Now, the worm adjuster underneath, that one is a bit hard to get to and requires a special tool, a specially shaped wrench with like a 24mm Allen head on it (or, you can use an old engine oil pressure switch, cut down so you can fit it into the adjuster and turn it with a crescent wrench.)
Sometimes having a not-tight-enough clamp bolt on Pitman arm where it bolts to the steering box, that can cause play. (I’ve seen it before) And any tie rod ends that are worn will cause play. On later cars, worn ball joints may do so as well, but not always. (On older models, loose Link pin adjustment, worn out link pin bushings and king pins+bushings can also add play to the steering.) You should check for stuff like that before you assume its a steering box adjustment that is needed.
Now for me, I replaced mine for two reasons – 1. I had it off the car anyway because I was changing front beams, and 2. It was at the end of its adjustment on the top adjuster. It still worked OK without excessive play, but since I had it off, and had a new one available anyway, decided to put it on there.
When I had my box off of the car, I took a few pics of it next to the new one just for comparison. Here’s one of them, you can see the “top” adjuster at the top of the pic, the new box is on the left and there are a lot of threads showing above the lock nut. My old box on the right, the adjusting screw is about flush with the lock nut. And the “lower” adjustment happens to be staring right at you from the angle this picture was taken, that a giant Allen wrench is needed to turn the adjuster is pretty obvious! You can also see the plastic plug on the new style that is filled with grease, and the square-head metal filler plug on the original 1962 box that requires 90W hypoid oil.Â
