I have a '91 Camaro RS V6 with some steering / suspension issues. I got the car about 8 months ago and have been driving it daily, making minor repairs along the way.

There's a bit of play in the steering that's been bothering me. When the car is off (in other words, when the power steering is off) I can easily move the wheel about 30 degrees in either direction before feeling any resistance. Even while driving, the wheel can be "played with" in that range without the car responding in any way.

The car came with some aftermarket wheels on it. They were very lightweight (magnesium perhaps) and may have downplayed the steering issues. Unfortunately, I bent the right rear one a few months ago and yesterday I replaced the whole set with some wheels and tires from the junkyard and the steering problem seems to have magnified a lot. The car now has a tendency to wander from side to side while driving and has a lot of vibration in the front end when cornering at speed.

I'm almost sure this car is in need of a front end alignment, but I also know most shops won't touch it unless the steering components are in good shape. I've been browsing old threads and read that the rag joint may be to blame, but I'm not sure if it would be wise to replace it, as I've heard that sometimes makes the problem worse. Could someone please explain or tell me what the source of the problem is?

 

The source of your problem is probably all the old components in your car. After I replaced all the steering components, strut mounts, ball joints, and bushings. Tightened the car right up. Rag joint is soon to be replaced on my car.

 

when i first got my car i couldn't stand to drive it more than an hour at a time the steering was so loose.

so far in the last 3 yrs i've replaced the tie rods, centerlink, idler arm, rag joint, steering box(x2),struts, strut mounts, springs, and added a wonderbar, subframe connectors, tubular rear control arms, relocation brackets, and 36MM hollow swaybar with poly bushings. I run 17x8 zr1s with nitto extremes.

every little bit helps.

my advice would be to replace the warn out parts before you add the "go fast" parts. some parts if replaced out of order will magnify the bigger problem. first thing i did, before anything else, was install sfcs. wrong. shoulda replaced ball joints and strut mounts first.

personally i would look into replacing something that's really, really worn out. ragjoint wouldn't be first on the list. get under your car and see where it makes the most play, then dive in.

good luck!

 

My car is the sameway, im searching the forums right now for some good part vendors so i can drive like a non drunk person again.
I put some stuff together on autozone it came to like 300 but on another website that had like mevotech or something all the parts came to about 170 :/

Ive replaced the shocks/struts, wheel bearings, rotors, brakes already,