Hi everyone,
I posted a couple days ago about my experiance installing brakes,
rotors, P/S 1/2 shaft, and new struts/springs. I noticed a steering
wheel vibration at medium-hard braking. I attributed this to my
rotors, which were orig. at 185k. Also the steering wheel would
vibrate pretty bad at highway(70mph) speeds. After installing all the
above, my vibration durring braking is gone.

However, my steering wheel and general handling is *WAY* worse than
before. Granted the front end sits a little higher, but it was much
more predictable and stable before. I was told that an alignment was
not necessary because I did not disturb any adjustment bolts(unlike
some GM cars that need to be aligned after a strut install)
Generally the car seems 'floaty', esp in corners. When
accelerating at low speeds, the wheel oscillated back and forth, and
pulls somewhat to the right(always has). As odd as it sounds,
sometimes if I hold the wheel steady, the oscillation goes away, until
I change speed or corner.
My question is this - will it make a difference if I get an
alignment before I get new tires(I need both)? Also will a tire shop
be able to tell me if there is something wrong with my wheels?(cheapie
painted American Racing wheels). I have read that a bent wheel will
give similar trouble. It was never this bad though. Maybe my problems
were simply magnified with new shocks/springs?

What do you folks think may be my problem? Like I said, the car
handling like it was on rails before I installed the above parts(even
with a broken D/S spring and bad P/S 1/2 shaft!). So I feel the
problem might be with how I installed the parts, or something like
that. I paid mention to all torque spec's.

Oh, FWIW, when I installed the D/S strut/spring, I could not get the
strut alignment 'notch' to line up with the split in the 'tension
fork'(the fork that attaches to the bottom of the strut). I couldn't
get it to line up because the bottom forks were twisted and wouldn't
allow me to pass the bolt through it. So in short the notches aren't
lines up on that side. The car has never been in an accident.

Thanks for reading - any insite is greatly appreciated!!!
-Jamie