How Do You Set 230 Steering Box

I have a 230 with a wagner bucket. I was removing some horse poo and came down onto something solid off the edge of my driveway with the wheel turned hard over. Whack the steering was suddenly really hard. OK I navigated it to a flat spot then got the cover pulled off and disconnected the U joints at the knuckles ad pulled the bearing and shaft out. No damage and looing inside the sector seems undamaged. It looked like it was really loose and just skipped over the edge of the teeth of the sector and gear. Abraided but not broken. Anyways I put it all back in and it still turns hard.
The book I have which is specific to the 230 goes into everything but how to set it back up. How do you adjust that thing? The locking nut just holds the bearing in place and it all seems to free float in and out via the opening of the 1 1/4" nutted cover. I can"t figure how this critter even works. Does the amount of cover screwed in depth determine how deep the gear seats into the sector or what? Also how do you go about determining when its seated right? I assume jack the front free of the ground and tighten till its just shy of tight??????

There is no adjustment on the steering gear on this tractor. The plug on the front of the steering box should be tight as this is what clamps the thrust bearing in place. If not tight, the steering will have play. The bearing must be tight on the shaft and then the plug must clamp the outer race to the steering box without causing any binding on the bearing. From your description, it sounds as though you may have broken something else such as the front bolster or the main vertical steering shaft. The front bolster on this tractor is a weak point and is not really designed to support any heavy loader work. YOu may need to pull the lower front bolster off ( the part with the wheels. I'm assuming you have a narrow front) It's just held on with 4 bolts. Once that is off, and you have the worm shaft out, you can remove more bolts and drop the whole steering assembly with the bearings and worm wheel gear out the bottom.

Thanks, at least now I know more than I did before. I have the wide front end with a freeman pipe loader on it and 3 foot bucket. I will have to jack the critter up and unhook the front end one of these days and check it. Who knows how much abuse that thing has had over the years?