Alright, I recently acquired a 1979 Fleetwood Brougham (gorgeous) but I've been having issues with the power steering. When the car is stationary or moving at a slow speed (less than 15 MPH), the wheel is VERY difficult to turn and requires actual man-handling to get it to turn. As you can imagine, parallel parking is a pain in the butt with this thing. When it's given a little gas, the wheel frees up and turns just fine when the car is in motion.

Interestingly enough, the wheel is a little "loose". I can turn the wheel a good 6 inches in either direction before the car actually starts to turn. I couldn't figure it out for the life of me.

I'm out of state, and I had my girlfriend take it to a car-savvy friend and then relay the problems to me. My I'm confused enough without my girlfriend's horrible lack of automotive sense passing the message along.

SHE says that HE says that the center linkage is bad, or loose or something, and that it could go at any time. It might last five years, it might break tomorrow and the wheels will turn independently and randomly. A recipe for disaster. There might have been something about the steering column too but I don't know. My girlfriend can be very clueless sometimes.

Is this assessment correct, or does it sound like it could be something else? If it is the center linkage, how much am I looking at to have it replaced?

Any help would be greatly appreciated, and I'll be sure to provide followup information as everything goes along.

 

Sounds like the car has 2 problems. The lack of steering assist is a loose steering belt or low fluid or a faulty (weak) pump. The too much play is probably the steering "center link" or idler arm.