thebigbarn

I recently did an alignment on the front wheels. It was my first time doing it myself and it went normally. In the days since, the steering has been "jumping." When I turn right and then back straight, all is fine. When I turn the wheel more than a quarter turn left and then back, I have to "oversteer" for the van to go straight. (So if my hands were at 9 and 3 before the turn, after turning back to straighten out the van my hands are at 10 and 4.) If I make a right turn and turn back, it will reset back to normal. It will also go back to "normal" after accelerating and then letting off the accelerator, but not all the time. Today while driving, I noticed that going over a bump would cause it to reset. Once, while in normal position, I hit the bump at the beginning of a bridge and it jumped to 10 and 4, then when hitting the bump at the end of the bridge it jumped back to normal. In these situations when it goes back to normal, I mean that it turns the wheels to match 10 and 4 and the van starts to turn right until I straighten out the steering wheel back to 9-3. The alignment itself is pretty good. The van goes straight even when the steering wheel is at 10-4.

When I did the alignment, I followed the common instructions: loosen the lock nut, turn the outer tie rod to align the wheel, lock the nut back down. Did I goof up something else or coincidence? Any ideas on what's happening?