The weak links of the stock steering shaft:

On the left we have the big rubber bushing that heats up and gets a little on the sloppy side. Mine was torn badly with 70,000 miles on the car. It is there to isolate road vibrations, but also takes a lot of the road feel out of the hands of the driver - no thanks...

On the right we have the slider that allows the steering shaft to collapse in an accident. It too is a weak link because of the plastic bushing inside the larger shaft. When the steering shaft gets hot this too softens up adding to the sloppy steering response.

With the stock steering shaft in place my car had 1/4 to 1/2 inch of play in the wheel before the car responded depending on how hot everything was. With the Griggs shaft the responds as soon as the wheel is turned