I rebuilt an Optima a few monthes ago and I had the same problems : gritty steering and shockingly soft servo saver.
I put the aluminium steering post on a Dremel and let it spun slowly against some paper towel with motor spray until it was clean. I also flushed the dirt inside the steering hole with motor spray. I tried to glue the servo-saver (hey, I want my Optima to perform at its best!) but the tyre glue joint broke shortly after. I tried to add washers under the spring but it feels almost the same. I gusess I have to glue it once again.
As for the servo, I used a trick I 'created' 20 years ago : clean everything with alcohol or motor spray, use a good servo tape, and then shrink-wrap the servo and its support with stick-pack shrink-wrap. It works really well, try it.
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