Dead spot in steering after integra pinion swap

[yevangelis]

Ok this is on my 98 civic with power steering, i did the pinion swap (see my build thread for details) and now I have a few inches of play in the steering wheel before the wheels react. I have new inners, outers, uppers and lowers. rack and all related bushings are new polys.

I can watch the u-joints and pinion under the dash turn with the steering wheel so this makes me think its in the rack-pinion mating area. The integra pinion has one more tooth than the civic so one would think things would tighten up not loosen.
The rack (rod) did rotate on my civic but not in the teg which I thought was odd but that shouldn't affect left to right movement.

Otherwise the power steering pump is not hooked up to the rack but i cant see that getting rid of what feels like mechanical slack.

Any ideas?

 

[mymmeryloss]

This could be a lot of different things. Post pics.

 

[yevangelis]

i don't think pics will help, but here are the pinions side by side (copied from my build thread)

integra nine tooth on the left, civic eight tooth on right

and here on the left was my civic bushing replaced with the integra bearing on the right, thats just a seal in the middle