About a month ago, my 1302S steering got inexplicably heavier.
This happened despite no changes to the front end since last year when I fitted a brand new connecting bar, tie rod end ball joints & damper. I also fitted a good used 1303 steering idler unit - in fact I ended up buying a whole 1303 just to get that part!
This heaviness kicked in gradually, so I can discount sudden bumps, heavy kerbing (and certainly no collisions!) I tried adjusting the roller grub screw, but nothing improved it.
Since fitting another used 1303 steering box and universal jointed linkage (kindly supplied by Nick Brown) last week, the steering has remarkably improved. Man, am I happy about that! 
However, I’m still puzzled as to how the transplant worked so well. With both boxes in the vice, each required only same amount of effort to turn the arm end to end from the linkage ends, though the old box did have more detectable high spots or notches.
Discounting Bug voodoo, anyone got a logical explanation about this phenomenon? :o
have you been working out lately or are you back on the weetabix?
Working Out?? Never! I think if I ever bothered to waste time and effort building muscles that would occasionally be used getting hefty with a spanner, I’d end up breaking more than I could afford to fix!
Mind you, that month or so with heavy steering and a stock 18" diameter steering wheel might have helped the old arm muscles a bit… :o
Now the problem’s cured tho, the 14" Astrali sports wheel might get a refit! 
if the boxes seem the same it would be the uv joint but in vice you are turning 12 mm coupling steeering wheel is 18" how are you going to feel difference when multiplied by a factor of 400
ian
Er, I think I’m losing the logic here…
In the car, wheels on the ground, the effort required to turn the steering wheel lock to lock is markedly different between the two boxes (all other things being the same). With the front end jacked up & both wheels off the ground, there’s still slightly more resistance when turning the old box.
However, when on the bench, with both boxes secured either end of the vice, I’d have thought more resistance would be detectable in the old box when turning the ends of their respective UJ shafts by hand. The UJs all seem as free to turn as each other, and all I can feel is the old box having a few notches more than the new one.
That’s the puzzle…