hey anyone know how to tighten up the quite large amount of steering slop my xfs got? ive heard you can tighten it, just dunno how.

Manual steering or power steering???????
If power steering, may need a new top cover...they have a bush that wears out....replace with a new cover that has a needle roller bearing. There is also an adjusting screw in there too, that adjusts the mesh of the sector shaft with the worm shaft.
They must be adjusted in the centre position, not at one side.

Hi, I had a very similar problem a few years ago on my car - (mine's an XB coupe but the steering box is the same - assuming you have a manual box but my `solution' is the same) - I tried adjusting the box which was OK for a while but if you keep adjusting it eventually you'll end up with an acceptable amount of play at `straight ahead' - but tightness off centre which is dangerous and feels awful when u are driving the car...

Easy way out? Go to a U pull it type wrecking yard, walk along all the XE-XF's you can find, lean in and start turning steering wheels.. you're looking for a box that turns nicely, but has no slop at the centre position - you may as well reject the ones with even a little play and keep looking for one with no slop at all - I found it useful to look at the overall condition of the car and the mileage on the odometer, looking for a clean, low K car.

And in case you're wondering, the box I ended up with was from a low k, XF panel van - bolted straight in to my XB with absolutely no problems!

Total cost? $27.00 for the box, which came with a good pitman arm which had a nice, non-worn ball joint too. Only drama in the whole thing is disconnecting the pitman arm from the steering linkage - I ended up buying a balljoint seperator to make it easier.

My XB actually has quite a few XF components in it - gotta love Ford parts interchangeability...