At the bottom of the steering shaft (steering shaft is what the steering wheel is fastened to on the top end) there will be a small, round gear (steering pinion gear) and a larger, flat, crescent shaped gear (essentially the "rack" gear but is called the "sector" gear as it describes a "sector" of a circle). Due to the ergonomic factor of wanting the steering wheel angled toward the driver, and the economic factor of wanting to build a machine with fewest parts (hence less cost to OEM) the pinion gear axis and the sector gear axis are typically at an angle to each other. What this means to the person looking for a cause of "sloppy" steering and/or excess play in steering and sometimes "slipping" or "jumping" is this: Because the gears mesh at at angle to each other, one of the surfaces (top or bottom) of the sector gear will appear to be in good shape while the other surface of the sector gear (top or bottom)will show wear and "rounding off" of the sector gear teeth. It depends on whether the OEM locates the pinion gear in front of or behind the sector gear as to whether the upper side or the bottom side of the sector gear will "show" the wear. Because one side will appear good to the eye, you must look at both the top surface of the sector gear AND the bottom surface of the sector gear to determine if it is worn. You should turn (or have a helper) the steering wheel slowly from stop to stop while you look for the wear. If your steering is "slipping" or "jumping" when you turn, it is a sure bet you will find wear on the sector gear teeth somewhere. The small amount of wear that it actually takes to cause this might even look "normal" if you haven't seen it before. So with that in mind, be sure that you watch the pinion & sector mesh while the steering wheel is turned to the extreme that causes the "slipping" or "jumping" to occur. You will probably see the sector gear bend or deflect away from the pinion gear at the moment of slipping. Sector gears are usually the failed component because the OEM nearly always uses a stamped and die cut sector gear with little or no heat treating & hardening afterward. In contrast, the pinion gears are usually ready made, off the shelf gears with all the heat treating and hardening afforded to gears per se.

After I cut this grass making mostly right turns, we will take a closer look. Thanks.
But still one question.
Why does it turn right and only slip when you turn left?
Thanks again.

"Why does it turn right and only slip when you turn left?"
Could be a function of the wear pattern on the gears, and which bushings have most play. Mownie described things very well.

One other thing to check is the bushing at the end of the steering shaft, below the pinion. IIRC, the bushing mount is not adjustable, so as the bushing wears, more play is introduced between pinion and sector. Also, the sector ('93 LT3000) was mounted on a shaft which rode in plastic bushings. As these wear, more play is introduced into the steering. IMHO, steering gear design was poor ('93 LT3000). As there is no adjustment in the design, your only option is to replace worn parts. Newer Sears models may have improvements/changes in the sector/pinion design.

t

As to why the teeth will slip turning one direction and not the other: It's probably due to the way the sector gear acts upon the drag link (first piece of linkage off the sector gear). In turning one direction, the sector gear is "pulling" on the drag link. In the opposite direction it is "pushing" on the drag link. My guess is that wear (and "slop") in the sector gear bearing/bushing is exaggerated by one of the directional reactions which results in the "slip" or "jump" of teeth but is cancelled by the reactions when turning the opposite direction. I'll have to study that next time I have the chance (to observe it on a machine).

I thought mownie did a great job too. It just seems funny that it does not slip turning left. It's not a bit sloppy from all the way right, back to straight either. Not even a hint until you try to go from straight to left. We'll see. As always, thanks.
I don't know what zone your in mownie,but if your near Texas you can study this one!.....lol

Tennessee, colt. Last time I was in Texas was 1976. Went to Alvin to see BIL & SIL. They moved so I haven't had a compelling reason to head southwest again. Thanks for the invite though.

Your welcome. I think I know what may be the problem. Or at least the underlying cause of the problem. My son in law. He and a buddy barrowed the tractor to cut his buds place. The ramps they used to get it in the truck were too steep. I watched on this end and they had to manhandle her onto the truck. Not easy, it's 500 lbs or so from what I read.
I think they dropped it on the other side. Or when they brought it back, I wasn't home. That was last fall and I didn't need to mow anymore.
Then I had the drag link come off. It was old and could have happened anyway. The battery I replaced had a mark on the top that I never notice before. In looking around I saw that the throttle cable device, is bent. Like maybe the battery bounced up and bent it? Son in law swore they didn't drop it, and swore he would fix it. That didnt' happen either. My son and I put the drag link on and discovered this new problem.
There must be a "don't loan your tractor to your son in law " forum somewhere.
Looks like rain again so maybe we will use this time to further investigate the issue. I'm afraid this tractor is getting to the point where I may be throwing good money after bad. We'll see.

I think it was William Shakespear who said, " In dealing with a son-in-law, neither a borrower nor a lender be.". I think I put the quotation marks where they should go.(actually, I put the part about the son-in-law in there, but it sounded so right) If they dropped your tractor, they probably did swear. If it hit the ground in just the right fashion, the steer tire involved might have hammered the steering linkage all the way back to the steering pinion. This might have been the last straw for the drag link and may have done a number on the sector gear teeth too. But, I'll bet that the teeth were already worn some and just got a bit more abuse force fed to them than they could stand. You might look at it like this to help you decide about the "good money after bad" equation: Next time you are out and about, stop in somewhere and look at some brand new LTs or GTs and think "I could purchase a lot of parts to keep my old Craftsman going for that kinda money." Next, think " For the amount of money I'm spending on that old Craftsman, I could buy me a brand new BRAND XXXX machine so I can lend it to my son-in-law". That ought to put it in perspective.

I have and older Model I think 917.254941 38" Lt4000. After 16 or so years I thought I would take the slop out of my steering and I would bump the fence occassionally with the front tire and hear that slipping sound. Then, after that it wouldn't turn to the left very far. Depending on the model you can still get most all the parts for the steering.
I replaced the Shaft, Sector gear, support shaft, pitman shaft and the steering bushing. Now most parts you can get to except for the steering shaft. you either have to tear the dash apart and get to the top bracket to to get the shaft out due to the spline gears at the bottom won't come through the steering bushing mount hole on my model (hopefully the newer one don't have this bad design flaw). Also don't forget the bolt (allen head, on my model) on the support shaft mounted on the bottom of the steering shaft. if you don't have to take the steering shaft out, usually this plastic piece is worn.

Slop is you biggest problem, I had to shim up the pittman shaft to close the gap between the sector gear and the shaft lower spline teeth with thin washers or shims stock. This took me about 3 tries to get it to turn the way I wanted it and to get all the slop out.

This is no small task and make sure you center the sector gear in the steering shaft. and watch the travel from side to side. I made an alignment mark on mine to get it centered and a reference mark in case it slips again.

There is alot of pressure put on the sector gear. I also had wear in the steering bracket that mounts at the bottom to the frame cross support plate. I ended up cutting a hole in the bottom of that plate so I could remove the steering shaft out the bottom without tearing the dash apart.

You could also have wear in the front axle bushing spacer which will alot the front axle to move back and forth or the single pivot mounting bolt could be loose alowing the slop.

IMO you will never get the same travel to the left as the right. I think the design prevents this and most people turn to the right more sharply. If I was going to buy my son-in-law a mower it would be a push mower (if I had one)this would make him understand the finer things in life don't come free. Any product that has stress put on parts are going to wear, it's a fact of mechanical devises, LTs are just like cars, you can drive them for ever if you take care of them or you can get one every three or four years and not have to worry about wear much.

Colt357, I think I'll be safe posting this as it has only been 4 days since the last posting. I got a chance to "study" the steering on a 1987 Huskee garden tractor (18 HP Briggs I/C opposed twin, sound familiar?). On this tractor, the steering pinion gear is located in front of the sector gear. The drag link attaches on the left side of the sector gear. When making a turn to the left, the drag link is PUSHING on the left steering knuckle and thus the reaction force tries to push the sector gear AWAY FROM the pinion gear, increasing the tendency to "jump teeth". When turning to the right, the drag link is PULLING on the left steering knuckle and thus the reaction force tries to PULL the sector gear closer to the pinion, reducing the tendency to "jump teeth". And, BTW, when I turned the steering all the way left and hard against the stops.......the pinion "jumped a tooth" !!!

I have a steering problem as well but seems like just the opposite of left and right turns. My mower turns very sharp to the left and not very much to the right. I lifted the mower up, can't see anything bent. The half moon gear on the the bottom of the steering shaft hits the end when going to the right, thus stopping a good turning radius. When turning to the right, it has a few gears left. I can't figure out how to "center" the gears to make it the same on either side.... any suggestions?