Hey guys,

I have a '78 Runabout with stock steering & suspension. This year I have put on four new tires and shocks, but I'm still having problems with the ride at highway speeds (over about 55 MPH). It seems like the car will pull one way, and then immediatly afterwards, pull the other way. It's pretty strange. Almost like the wind is buffetting the car from different directions.

Does anyone know what the problem might be? I also took it in over the summer to a steering & brake shop and had an alignment done (and I told them to let me know if anything else is wrong with the suspension).

The only suspect I can come up with is the super tiny tires that I have on it. They are like 155 or 165 R13s. That, or just the fact that my car is 30 years old, and was designed for a lower speed limit!

Suggest checking for play in both tie rod ends and both inner pivots (under the accordion boots).  I have had a similar driving problem with my 86 Mustang (similar rack).  My problem turned out to be the inner pivots on the rack unit wearing out.  Once the inner pivot gets some play, the wear seems accelerates quickly.  You need special tools to replace the inner pivots and the pivots are about two thirds the price of a complete rack unit.  So I found quicker and easier to replace the whole rack unit.  I have had to replace mine twice in 200k miles.  Hope your problem turns out to be an easy fix.

There is something called a steering shaft coupler.  I am not sure what it looks like, but when it goes, the car feels like the tie rod ends are completely shot - lots of steering play.

Wifey had a 77 Mustang II.   It did the same thing.  It turned out to be the bushings that hold the rack to the frame.  The way to check it is to look at the rack while someone turns the wheel with the tires on the ground.  If the rack moves you found the problem....
I actually had an even further problem.  New stock bushings still allowed the rack to move.  The rack holes were machined oversized compared to the bushings.  So I machined my own bushings out of polyurethane skate board wheels.  After that it cured my problem. 

oh sure, I give my advice and the topic gets abandoned.

Hello Krazi,
 I think this topic got abandoned "LIKE MANY DO" because the original poster has not come back and replied anything???
 My NEW 1600 Pinto front tires lean out at the top?
 I'll fix that when I put it in the weeds!!!!!
 From Pintony

hehehe Tony said "weeds" I like the fact that Tony is going to Bag is Pinto ( oh oh, The first Bagged Pinto......... ... :police: )

Both my pintos are squirrly at highway speeds too.  I can control it once i get used to it. I know the ragjoint is bad on my 76 and the inner tie rod ends (under the boots up against the rack and pinion) are shot on both the cars. I have a new power rack and pinion with tie rod ends for my 76, and all the parts to convert it to power steering, but go figure the threads on the end of one of the inner tie rod ends on the new rack are screwed up and both outter tie rod ends will screw onto the other side, but neither one will screw onto the side in which im referring to. Grr! Had the rack warrantied, and the new one was the same way. So im stuck on fixing that until i can figure out what size METRIC  die i need to fix it, and hope i dont screw it up worse when i try to fix it. Anyways, thats what id be willing to bet your problem is too (bad inner tie rod ends). Grab ahold of each front wheel at the 9 and 3 oclock positions and pushwith one hand while pulling with the other  and alternatly switch back n forth with your hands to see if there is any play in the wheel. If the wheel will move in or out like that(hopefully i explained that right, lol), there are bad tie rod ends, be it inner or outter.