Wandering steering / 1987 190E 16V

[davidmash]

The car seems to track straight at speed but if I hit road ruts, expansion joints (where the car gets unweighted and then comes back down it seems to want to wander all over the road. It like to follow road imperfections much more so than before.

I have 17” EVO II with 215/40/17. I have just had the front end aligned when I replaced all the control arms in the read end (4 on each rear wheel). The Idler arm, struts, damper, tie rods are all only a few years old. The car can be a hand full on the road. If the road is smooth, there does not seem to be a problem. The steering box was rebuilt about a year ago. Steering fluid was a bit low but no visible leaks. I filled it back up.

I was just under the car and everything seems tight. The only movement was ont e steering damper and the bar that it is attached to. I could rock it from the front of the car to the rear but it is on ball joints and that seemed normal. It was not loose per se but I could rock it a few degrees each way. Side to side it was firm with no movement. I rocked the wheels and they seemed pretty tight.

It did not always do this. I do not recall if it was this way after the alignment (about 3 months ago). My wife hardly drives the car and she said it was much looser than it used to be.

Thanks as always for your input