Great video Bill.. it’ll be good watching you rebuild that steering box the one on my 1966 ford 2000 steers hard to the left and this video will be very helpful when I do mine.
Sign of a bearing going out.. It is suppose to have oil in it not axle grease. I use corn head grease in mine when i rebuild them. it stays fluid enough to flow and less likely to leak. . The main problem with this steering design is the upper bear never gets lubed. For that you need to pour oil down the neck to lube.
Some one may have tighten the adjustment screws - the ones you used to remove the side covers- to take free play out of the steering wheel, that will make hard to steer, won't spin back to center like it should. You may just need some new seals and to adjust it like it should be. excess play in the steering wheel doesn't really hurt anything, it's not a race car.
There's no gasket on the steering box to the bellhousing as it's a dry area so no need for a gasket. As for the steering box freeing up is because you removed the gear lash adjusters, one side of the gear is worn out more than the other as tractors spend most of their life only traveling one way around a field
