Well I have installed new shocks and a new idler arm and bushing. Everything seems pretty tight and I cannot find any signs of slop anywhere in any of the linkage in the front end. But I still have some slight darting when hitting bumps or the road has ruts or is slanted very hard. I am going to check the wheel bearings tomorrow, but I figured I would ask you guys for some advice on what else it could be. Thanks in advance, you guys have already been a big help with this car.
It is kinda tricky to check the upper control shafts and bushings. Could have play in those. Also, if the caster angle is out it could cause issues. How do the radius bushings look? How about the lower control bushings and ball joints? What about the wheel lash? How much do you have?
I will have to put it on jack stands and check it out. Like I said, first thing I will check is the wheel bearings since everything else looked tight when I had my son wiggle the wheel. The ball joints didn't seem to have any slop, but I will know more once on jack stands. The guy at Autozone mentioned that it could be a worn ragjoint/steering coupler.
has the car been aligned? is it possible that the center link is not a maverick one. if it isnt it it would cause bump steer.
I think I remember that to check the bj's and steering on these types of suspensions you are supposed to jack the front end up and place a 2x (block of wood) between the upper control arm and the ledge. You then set the car down on jack stands on the body (I would use the seams at furthest front behind front wheels). This eliminates the binding and pressure that gets applied to the suspension and puts the steering close to the normal steering position.
