Power steering self centering adjustment

Professor Fate said

Silly question, but you DID loosen the two bolts, right?
Loosen them just enough so you can tap the valve forward or backward, and the valve doesn't leak.
I forget which way (forward or backward) makes the steering go which way, but it's not too hard to figure out. Once you've got it so it will stay centered, tighten the two bolts back down. It doesn't need to move very far at all.
View attachment 1716451843
Red arrows show the two bolts, green arrows show the directions the valve can move.

Click to expand...

Not silly. No. I don’t have the manual where I am now, but I didn’t pick up on it if it’s there.

I’m certain as I can be without the manual, but it said to do the tap test while the car was running but that won’t work if the screws are loose. Wednesday, I’ll do as you describe.

Assuming I get the self-centering fixed, I then need to adjust the preload to remove the slack in the steering wheel. With the car running, I was judging the slack by watching the input shaft while twisting the coupling with my hand, careful to recognize wiggle between the coupling and the shaft of which there was very little. I was doing the centering wrong. Am I doing the preload correctly? I couldn’t get the play out.

I put in a $200 O’Reilly’s rebuilt. Have you guys had good luck with those?