Increasing steering effort by cutting spring

Thanks for replying.

You very well are correct. In another lifetime I remember “shimming” was the fix for light steering. Usually in hydraulics you would increase spring load to delay bypass. I guess I can add shims and if it doesn’t work, cut off the spring but I’m guessing you’re right. How much thickness would be a good starting point?
Like AJ/FormS said, it's a trial thing. It takes some time to get it where you like & depends on some things like steering wheel diameter, (mine was the stock plain Jane Duster one) & tire size. I had the room & did this mod right on the car but again, again, it takes time to do. Draining the P/S fluid, removing the hose end, removing the valve & carefully disassembling it etc. It takes time but, I got lucky by adding just 1 shim, I used the copper crush washers that go between the brake hose & caliper on disc brake cars (I think most older American cars are pretty much the same O.D. but thickness may vary a bit. I had them laying around & fit perfectly. I got this trick from Mopar Action (Now recently de-funked) years ago. There may still be an article on the web about how to do this. It was called "Pump it Down".