My 98 had really bad slop in it when I got it. a chunka-chunka back and forth.
My 97 had zero slop in it.

I Put the body from the 98 onto the frame of the 97. (it's more complicated than that but... mostly) so the rack, rods, and bushing/rag joint were all pretty new and had zero play before, so it had to be upstream of the power train.

My 2 cents

1. old rack (off 98) had a little bit of play and leaked a bit.
2. the old bushings were kind of shot so very likely this was also a little slop.
3. the u-joint had a tiny bit of slop in it. this I swapped over from the 97 and it removed the remaining slop

so as your finding out the steering is the sum of all the parts. Each part had a tiny bit of wear in it so that totaled a larger chunka-chunka.

This is the u-joint part and it's a big pain to get at.... but like I said mine had worn a bit.

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YOKE SUB-ASSY, STEERING SLIDING