JMG97SS

My car seems to want to follow every rut in the road too easy and there is just alittle play in the stearing wheel. Whats usually the cause this?

fxgs

What size tires do you have mounted? Usually when running larger tires you experience the phenomena called "tracking" Sounds like what you're experiencing...............or you just have lousy roads in your area.

JMG97SS

stock SS wheels 17x9.5 not sure of the tire size

Wild Willy

the short answer is "wear in moving parts"

Low profile tires, especially wide ones, will follow rutting in the roads-

you can adjust your alignment specs to minimize this- but tire choice will have a bigger affect-

slomarao

pick up a rag joint elimanator (sp) it will help out steering wheel play. especially if you have done tie rods.

bluz28

I've had a set of Pirelli Pzero Rosso tires that were great tires on good roads, but they totally sucked otherwise. They would follow every damn rut in the road like a bloodhound following a scent trail. As soon as I changed tire the problem was gone.
So I'm going to say that tires are at least part of your problem.

Injuneer

Stock SS (coupes only) wheel is 17x9.0" 50mm offset, and came with a 275/40-17 tire.

JasonK94Z

I have the same problem. Some roads here suck! Wow, they really suck! I replaced my outter tire rods, and had my alignment redone to damn near perfection, and it still tracks like crazy. I blame the cheap Sumitomo HTR-Z's I'm running.
Maybe I should get a rag joint eliminator? I don't think the original one is in bad shape though.

MeanGreen97Z

I have the same tires and have the same problem.

97FormulaWS-6

Slop is caused by worn parts; Rag Joint, Tie-rod-ends, and rack.

Tracking is caused by having an 10" wide front tire; one of the side-effects of having wide tires for good handling on the front.

bluz28

A wide tire in more prone to tracking than a narrow tire, but not all wide tires create it. I've had Falken, Pirelli and Dunlop 275 width tires on my car and the only ones that caused tracking problems was the Pirelli's.

"Tracking" is also caused by Toe-out, Bump Steer, and running a lot of Negative camber.

97FormulaWS-6

*shrugs* all the tires I ever had on my bird always tracked... Firehawks; Dunlops, Nittos, and BFGs. And I had aligned to specs I got on here (From Sam Strano I believe; it was a few years ago) for road racing/road-use.

Ultra_Dog

I had about 2-3* of slop in my steering. Car would wander and drift.

Found the rag joint was sloppy (185,000 miles), replaced with used part ($45 from GM Sports Salvage).

Tracks true and tight.