at highway speeds and under hard braking, the car wanders left or right. pretty scary to drive haha. ball joints, inner tie rods and outer tie rods have all been replaced as well as an alignment a few thousand miles ago.

i am unsure how long this "wandering" issue has gone on for since i bought the car 2 days ago.

 

sounds like some excessive play in the rack and pinion.

have you also checked your brakes, calipers, and rotors?

 

So you put a "few thousand miles" on your vehicle in the past 2 days? How do you know they weren't lying to you? Your rack and pinion may need to be adjusted. It's easy to do, there is a write-up for this.

 

so you guys are saying play in the steering rack? i'll check the u-joint this weekend.

to clarify, the alignment/tie rods/ball joints were all done by previous owner. i have the receipt from the shop.

 

ehhh...personally i would have it all rechecked. its like $74 for a complete front end service here in Mississippi.

but i'd be willing to bet its something in the rack..

 

The "u-joint" probably isn't the problem, although it wouldn't hurt to check it out, if it is the rack - the manual ones have an adjustment. Obviously you are unsure so just take it to a shop. Around here I believe they only charge $10-15 for a front end check.

 

i checked the faq on this site and didn't see anything about adjusting a manual steering rack. is there a good article somewhere i could follow?

 

I'd look into the front brakes.

Good luck,
~Jason

 

Also see if you can jack up the front end and do some wiggle testin'