Just a grease that you would use to grease your suspension parts, or u-joints. Not a heavy grease, tho.
The system being empty of fluid will not cause any excess free-play in the gearbox itself. If you can turn the steering wheel, and NOT see the lower pitman arm(where the steering linkage attaches) move, the play is in the gearbox. IF you move the wheel, and the pitman arm responds accordingly, then you would need to visually check the steering linkages under the car, including the drag link on the passenger side, as well as the tie rod ends. Take a good look at where the power steering cylinder attaches to the frame on the drives side. There are rubber bushings there that can be bad, and cause freeplay. The bracket for the cylinder can also be loose from the frame, or in worse cases, the frame can be cracked where the bracket bolts to it.
That being said, there will always be a
small amount of looseness in the steering on these cars....you're moving a lot of different parts, and each has some minor play. But....any movement in the steering wheel should also produce movement at the tire/rim, if everything is in decent condition. Might take a while to find where the largest amount of play is, and correct that first....have a helper(Marcia, maybe?
) sit in the car and wiggle the wheel back/forth, while you look at each component, to see where the play is.
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Joel Adams
C3VR Lifetime Member #56 
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