Steering gearbox rebuild

Guys I need some help. When I recently installed some escalade wheels on my 86 B2000 cab+ I realized my sloppy steering was more noticable. An inspection of the main suspension components I concluded they needed replacement. Got new inner/outer tie rods, upper/lower ball joints, pitman arm, idler arm, and strut rod bushings. Installed over Christmas weekend and had the front end aligned still very sloppy steering which lead me to diagnose it to the gearbox being the issue. I've researched how to fix the gearbox and found that they can be adjusted, but there is almost the no information on Mazda gearboxes so all the info I've found is from similar types of gearboxes from other makes and models.

This weekend I pulled mine off the truck and began cleaning and dismantling. Everything is fairly straight forward. When I dismantled the input shaft/worm gear from the input housing the ball bearings and races for the rotating shaft fell into my tub and cleaning solution. After I cleaned the aforementioned parts I re-assembled the bearing into its retaining ring and races. This is when my dilemma began. I had 2 ball bearings left in my tub after installing the others in the all the holes in the retaining ring. I bagged all bearings and races and decided to double check to make sure I didn't just miss a hole or two. Counted the number of holes and bearings and sure thing 2 extra bearings.

Inspecting the housing and the shaft I don't see any other place where these 2 other bearings would or appeared to belong. I need help figuring out where or what these 2 additional bearing go. I've got a new seal kit on order so any help would be greatly appreciated.

From your post it wasn't clear weather you have power or non-power steering. I went to the Jim Ellis site here: http://www.jimellismazdaatlanta.com/online-parts-ordering.htm and looked at the non-power exploded diagram and couldn't see where any extra balls could go. So that wasn't much help. Maybe you can chalk it up to a bad science experiment and upgrade your steering to a power box by getting all the parts (box, pump, mounting hardware and cooling line) out of a parts yard like I did when I got tired of steering effort requirements with a manual box on my '86.

Sorry about that detail mazdatweaker. I have a power box.
After much more detail inspection this week I concluded that those extra bearings were the same size as the ones with the worm gear, so I just put everything back together and put the extra ones with the others in the worm gear. I slapped some new paint on it and plan to get it bolted back on the frame this weekend. With any luck it won't leak since the sector seals with the new kit didn't fit. Of course it would be my luck they didn't fit since they're the ones which were leaking to begin with.
In researching this repair I found some helpful info from some Toyota truck forums about repairing similar style boxes.I think I will be able to turn the sector shaft adjuster clockwise slightly to get all the slop out of the steering. I also read on the yota boards about using ATF fluid because it has properties to cause the seals to swell a little possibly stopping the leak. Does anyone on here know if using ATF will cause a problem with the pump?

ATF is fine for power steering. I've used it to fill GM pumps when I was working on vehicles full time. I don't know if I would want to use it in late model Honda's or etc. that come from the factory with special fluid though. In going through your steering slop, I would recommend looking at the rag joint. They get overlooked and maybe if yours has gone bad it is contributing to the problem.

Thanks for the reply mazdatweaker. I looked at the owners manual and it did state to use ATF type F fluid. So far I haven't noticed a leak but I will keep an eye out. I also got the slop out by getting the sector shaft adjusted. I wish now I had taken photos so I could post up a nice sticky for others who have had similar issues.

I will add for anyone who has a similar issue with slop in their steering to adjust the sector shaft (the shaft the pitman arm is attached to) loosen the nut on the top with the slotted bolt and turn it slightly clockwise to adjust out(tighten) the wheel slop. Counter clockwise will loosen the wheel(make it more sloppy).