1997 pontiac firebird formula. My car is very hard to handle while driving on any surface that is rutted in any minimal way. Ive had it aligned and the mechanic says everything looks tight. While moving steering wheel back and forth, there is about 1 to 2 inches play. Im on my second brand of tires so dont think theres an issue there. If i hit any kind of bump in the road, it will throw my car in that direction. Any suggestions?

 

Suspension looking tight can be deceiving. Sometimes things don't move until your suspension is being worked. Standing still, it's hard to identify those issues. What has been replaced or worked on recently? Sometimes, parts just need to be re-torqued. Other times, it can be a faulty steering rack. Start with the easy stuff.

 

Nothing has been worked on recently. Last year I replaced steering pump. Car was handling poor before that. Rac is not making any obvious noices but for some reason my thoughts go to it being faulty. Is there a way I can diagnose a faulty rack and pinion?

 

Bushings are probably all cracked garbage. Replace all of them. Even still these cars will never have a great on-center feel.

 

If it's on old shocks, that's the first place to look. And yes, the bushings are not likely great, but shocks make the car wander all over the place.

 

As said already you may want to look into decent shocks. I had the stock shocks on my car up until a few months ago and after swapping them out it honestly feels like a totally different car imo it is probably the best mod I've done and i should have done it alot sooner

 

I have a very similar complaint / feeling from my 97 Trans Am. Driving in a straight line the car seems to wander across the lane. I'm constantly correcting and adjusting as I go, but when I move the steering wheel it feels like there's a few degrees of movement in the wheel before there's any noticeable change in the cars direction. Because of this I wondered about the steering rack, but when I put it up in the air and pull on the tie rods, wheels, rack, etc everything feels snug.

I actually have Koni STR.Ts and Strano springs on the way right now, so I can report back if that helps with the wandering at all. That being said, it's my summer car that's in hibernation right now, so I'm not sure how quickly I'll get that info for you. When I do install though I plan to test drive it to see if I need to keep searching for the issue.

 

When my front lower control arm horizontal (rearward) bushings were garbage, my car wandered from left to right as the control arms were able to move side to side with the failed bushings. Id look here for starters.

 

I forgot to say that from inspection on a ramp, you couldn't see the bushing failure because of its location and parts in the way.

 

That much play in the steering in these cars with high mileage often indicates wear on the tie rods (inner and outer ends). The most simple fix is to replace the steering rack including outer tie rods.

 

also , no one has mentioned the intermediate steering shaft , thats definitely an area to concider to looking at !

 

+1 for car wandering BAD at 140k miles, stock shocks replaced with bmr springs/bilstein shocks & adjustable panhard= zero wandering and a completely 200% better ride & handling