On my '70 Chrysler product, it got the loose steering situation and I similarly adjusted the sector shaft jam nut on the top of the gear box. Yet, even when I tweaked that adjustment to not be too tight and not too loose, it still was. I noticed that when I could turn the exposed part of the steering column from under the hood, with the engine off, I could see that in the center position, when I turned the steering column shaft either way, it would move outward instead of turning smoothly. That led me to suspect there was an adjustment on the input side of the steering gear box--where the spanner nut is. But I ended up just tolerating the slack that wasn't slack--after a while, you get used to it.
I inquired with one of the mechanics at the local Chrysler dealer and he said there was no adjustment up there, BUT that did not explain how they did the initial adjustment at the factory when they built the gearbox. But then too, that particular adjustment was something that few people knew about back then. Seems there was an article in one of the Mopar magazines recently that mentioned how to set up that adjustment on the input side too--like just tighten it down or similar. Whatever it might be, getting the adjustment done on that side of the box can be just as important as the sector shaft adjustment.
I might be missing something on the steering wheel nut, but when that nut is torqued down, it will only go so far and all shimming under it to take slack out at that point, would only pull upward on the input shaft seal/bushing and possibly wear them out sooner, it would seem.
In some of the later C-body style steering columns, there are a few other wear areas in the intermediate shaft part of the complete column itself. I don't think they typically cause any problems, but if the "bearings" are not installed correctly, it can make the column seem worn out up there, but putting them in correctly makes it feel new again.
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