when you say wanders, do you mean slop in the steering or that it just won't hold direction?
rag joint would be slop in the steering.
wallowing back and forth, requiring corrections, but otherwise tight steering is an alignment issue.
but slop in the steering could be the gear box even with low miles.
As I understand it from the rebuilder steering without assist could cause damage to the gear box.
They said(and I don't know how true it is) that it had a torsion spring inside of some sort that could be damaged by cranking on the wheel without assist.
I checked under the car by moving the gear box by hand and watching how long it took to move the pitman.
It sort of takes off on it's own, left or right requiring frequent steering correction, much more than what I think of as normal, even though these days rack and pinion is my daily driver and basis of judgement.
We've replaced lower ball joints, strut rod bushings, tie rod ends, torsion bars, springs, shocks and sway bars. Did NOT do upper or lower control arm bushings, kinda surprised about that. Nor upper ball joints, not surprised about those.
I think you and RR are correct. I think it's slop that's causing (allowing) the wander, not caster. I should get it back from the tranny shop tomorrow, but time to check it out will probably be on the weekend, when rain is forecast so maybe not.
Robert
