Why do I have such sloppy steering?

What I usually do is after having the front tires off the ground and check for looseness I lower the front tires on to ramps to put the weight of the car on the tires but still allow me to get underneath. then with someone slowly moving the steering wheel back and forth look and feel for sloop in the linkage and all the way back up to the steering box coupler. Car not running BTW.