shudder: need rotation or alighment? or...

transmission

One cause of these problems are worn/loose tie rods. This is easy to check - jack up the left front until the wheel is off the ground, grab tire and try to turn it right and left the way the tire would move if the steering wheel would move. Do the same to the other side. If you can move the wheel from side to side any amount at all, then you have a loose tire rod.

For a pic of the tie rod see this:

The rod that is wired up is the tie rod. The round accordion it is going into is the steering rack, the inner tie rod is in there.

Any competent alignment shop can diagnose this as it's not possible to align the car and have it stay aligned if these are loose. If it's an inner tie rod then the best course is to pull the entire rack and pinion out and replace it with a rebuilt one.

If it's not a tie rod then check for broken belts in the tires - rotate both front tires to the back and see if the problem goes away.

Ted

Done just exactly as advised. YES, it must be the tie rods worn out. The driver's side is much worse. The tires are all pretty new, should be no problem. But it's not a job I can do myself, will take it to a mechanic. Thanks a lot Ted. Simon

Your welcome. It is almost certainly an inner tie rod on the inside of the rack cylinder. Probably both. The rack and pinion will have to come out and be replaced and the front end realigned. Generally in a vehicle that vintage you would use a remanufactured rack and pinion. Over the counter at an auto parts store these cost around $150. I would call around to auto parts stores and get some pricing before you call around to garages. Also get pricing on tie rod ends and get pricing on right and left front axles. (should be around $80 per axle) If the axles are original there's a good chance the CV boots are spiderwebed with cracks and are about ready to go. Since the front crossmember has to be dropped in order to get at the rack-to-steering-column attachments, the smart thing to do is to replace the rack, both tie rod ends, and both axles if any of these parts show signs of wear. If you do replace tie rod ends, then make sure the replacements are fitted with zerk (grease) fittings. Also get some pricing on power steering hoses, as the garage may find cracked PS hoses. And one other thing if the spark plugs haven't been done or the plug wires haven't been done then you might as well have them done to since with the rack removed, access to the back plugs is rediculously easy.

If you want to see what's involved read down to figure 23 on my transmission pictorial here:

I would suggest you make up a list of the following and shop it around - a busy shop might be inclined to quote this with separate time allocations to each job, but since all these parts are all tied up with each other, to do them all at once should take far less time. Also, keep in mind this is a worse case scenario - it might be they get in there and find the rack is fine and only the 2 outside tie rod ends are bad, that doesen't even need a realignment, and $200 later your on your way. But this way you avoid the phone calls like "We got the front end apart and discovered X and X and X and X is bad... and see the price shoot up through the roof. With a steering problem like this, any shop you give it to would be incurring a huge liability to let it go out the door again without a solid steering system in it, so you got to be really comfortable with who you take it to in advance!

Replace:

Rack & pinion LH and RH outer tie rods LH and RH axles power steering hoses flush power steering pump

Also one other question for you, is this on the original transmission? And what size engine does it have?

Ted