68 Barracuda Manual Steering Box

Got around to installing the steering box. It did improve the tightness of the steering while cruising around, which I am happy with. However, there is still a bunch of slack in the steering wheel when parked. I did loosen the nut and tightened the screw a quarter twist at a time to see if it improved anything and it did not help. I tightened it a full turn and half and still no improve before backing it back down to the factory setting. There is no play in the pitman arm or any or steering linkage. The issue seems to arise at the highlighted part below. This rod within the box has slack in it while parked. Is this slack normal or is this pointing to a defective steering box that needs to be replaced? Want to rule everything out before I take the time to replace the box completely.

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