Sloppy steering

I will put my fingers/hands around each joint in the steering linkage as someone moves the wheels back and forth; you can feel very small bits of play and movement in each joint that you cannot readily detect by eye.

1/8" is IMO waaaay on the far end of tolerable up and down movement in the idler arm. I look for 'nothing'. Small up and down movements in the idler translate into very large changes in toe. Idlers need to be TIGHT. To get some perspective, idler vertical movement is the same as the steering box being loose in its mounts at the other end of the draglink.

Look up the factory procedure in your box for adjustment. The old process involves overtightening the adjustment by more than 1 turn for a re-assembled unit to properly align the teeth mesh, then backing out the overtightened adjustment and working from there. I have to wonder if that was ever done.