Sitting still and trying to turn the steering wheel will take lots of effort, especially if you have wide tires. If you bought a new or rebuilt box, you shouldn't have to adjust it. Hard to say on a used one.
It's brand new and it's not even hooked up to anything. Just bolted to the k member. I put the Pittman arm on partially and tried to turn it and it is hard to do. The old one I can turn with 2 fingers. The screw on top is turned in quite a bit compared to the old one too. The old 23:1 box is actually in good shape. Just wanted a quicker ratio.
