[Bruce_MO]

That does seem strange. Are you sure it’s not just your imagination, I.e., when you cleaned the crud off it, it now looks longer and sticks out further??? The only thing I might suggest is to turn the wheel almost all the way either right or left to maximize play between the worm and sector, and then see if you can tap (gently) the sector “‘down” through the thrust screw hole. If you get under the car and see if you can push/pull the pitman arm and sector up and down relative to the nose of the housing, and push it “down” against the thrust washer in the housing, then tighten the thrust screw.


Good luck. I’ve never felt like I made much improvement in a worn steering box, without doing a major overhaul.