There are a number of possibilities, including the steering box. Check for looseness at all joints: in the tie rod ends in the center steering bellcrank ensure that the steering box attaching bolts are tight ensure the wheel bearings are properly adjusted. check the steering rag joint for weakness You might consider getting your head under the front of the car and watching the various joints for sloppiness (to see if steering wheel motion is being lost, ie, on the change of steering direction one part moves a ways before the movement is transmitted to the next attached part) while someone else turns the wheel slowly side to side past the looseness... with the car idling in neutral and the rear wheels firmly chocked. There are some adjustments for looseness in the steering box that involve measuring the pounds of effort it takes to move the steering wheel (get a shop manual, it's well worth the price). BTW, it's normal to have more free play in the steering wheel on older cars than you'd find in the rack & pinion systems of today... if the car wanders a lot, then you have a problem. ===================== You can do some simple checks on your own to determine the problem or problems. Get a helper in the car to move the steering wheel from side to side to the point that it doesn't move the wheels. Ted's suggestion is the most likely place to start. What you would see is an upward motion of the bellcrank, that's where the tie rod ends and the steering rod connect, that upward motion is "play" in the steering. Other sources are the steering and tie rods themselves. Look for movement at the ends where they bolt up. Make sure the steering box is tight to the frame. You would look for looseness in the box by watching the movement of the input end where the steering column bolts up in relation to the output end where the pitman arm bolts up. There is supposed to be some play at the box but it shouldn't translate to more than 1/2 to 3/4 inch of movement at the steering wheel before the pitman arm moves. Adjusting the box is possible but that may be best left to your front end guy. To check the king pins, put a floor jack under the lower control arm and jack the car up enough so you can grab the top and bottom of the wheel and "rock" it back and forth. There should be no movement. Loose front wheel bearing will cause the same movement as loose king pins so if you feel something get your helper to rock the wheel while you look from behind. If it's wheel bearings just the wheel will move, if it's king pins the whole assembly will move caliper, backing plate etc. The upper and lower control arm bushing can be checked visually. Look at the rubber, a few little cracks in the visible rubber is normal if your bushings are old but chunks of rubber sticking out or missing to where metal is contacting metal mean they need replacement. Please note that looseness in the front end means different things to different people. If your wheels don't react to steering input quickly than your problems lie mostly in what I described in the first paragraph. If there are shimmys and shakes and groans when you hit bumps you may have two paragraphs worth of problems. There are fewer and fewer people in the automotive trade that are familiar with cars like ours so I don't think it would hurt for you to diagnose your symptoms before turning it over to a front end shop. erizzolo@gateway.net> ========== jack 'er up and check the steering box bolts. Lo and behold (I read that in a book somewhere) the lower bolt was so loose the nut was about to fall off on the back side! A few minutes with my ratchets and it's back down tight. The other two bolts were fine. Noticed immediate improvement before I even get to the freeway to run at speed. And to think I replaced the coil springs becasue of this. Thanks to whomever suggested this as a possible culprit. KM