Ok, so remove the blocks. What is normally used for body lift up front? like cab mounts/ bushings & look for a bushing kit.
Maybe the missing missing swaybar bushing is more the cause of the sloppy steering than the steering box?
That truck doesn’t have a body lift from looking at your other pics.
But it does have a janky home made suspension lift. Aka the front blocks.
Sway bar or lack thereof like yours with a blown out bushing won’t affect how sloppy the steering is.
But that truck is old and beat up. It could easily be bottoming the front springs.
Given your lack of knowledge, if you plan on replacing the springs dont order any steering components until you know what lift springs you’re putting in it and then order a drop Pittman or drag link accordingly.
Having read most of your posts from the beginning when you were talking about making it a tow monster for a big 5ver or whatever, and not seeing the truck until recently, you would be best off to come up with a solid written plan and learn/ask/know enough to gain some moderate knowledge about trucks (which you dont) before you launch your Visa card into orbit.
If you’re still even considering a comprehensive rebuild to make it a good solid reliable safe daily driver and/or tow rig, you’re almost starting n from scratch with what you have.
You’ll have a lot of thousands of dollars like maybe 10 grand and lots of hundreds of hours at a minimum just to get it mechanically “like new” or somewhere close.
And that’s before even touching anything cosmetic interior or exterior.
Think real hard about where you want to go with this.
And consider buying one in very good condition to begin with and then add to it from there. Even if you place zero $ value on your time, you’ll still be even or money ahead by buying a good truck as a base for your build.
Out here, $7-9k will get you a truck that needs 10% of what that one does to be a good reliable sound straight driver. Not to mention it won’t be a years long process filled with learning countless more things the hard way before giving up with a bunch of sunk costs or finally getting it past the fixing and rebuilding and on to the next round of thousands of dollars even if you diy the body work, paint and interior.
This is not meant to discourage you as one generally only learns by doing and often by struggling or failing, but moreso to get you on the path to a good old truck that can actually be a reality based on my perception.
If there aren’t good trucks around you for decent price, look in the PNW. Look at what I’ve posted recently and in the recent past for trucks for sale around here.
Hell, theres a turn key, good paint new 383/trans/ list of parts as long as your arm K20 for sale in Spookane (Craigslist) for $8500. Drive it home to Texas and drive it every day with only tinkering or modifying to do to it.
And another beauty all original 6.2 diesel K20 for sale near here for $7800 for months now (cL as well).
Either one or many others like it would put you money/frustration ahead and in instant gratification mode for less $ than you’ll spend getting your truck to that stage.
Heck, keep yours for a “project” if that’s what you want. Presuming it was dirt cheap given the condition so not a financial and mental burden (yet, unless you tear into yours in earnest, in which case you’ll be burning dollars and hours like a fat kid eating candy).
JMO Good luck.
