Haven't had time to get the 944s on a lift and really go over it for suspension wear issues. But it pulls some so I will need to get it aligned, and before I do I'll want to address wear items. Not being familiar with the front end on these cars, what are the primary wear items? ie: what goes out first on the front suspension?

 

The lower ball joints and inner and outer tie rods are usually the first to go. You might also consider changing out the rubber bushings on the control arms, depending on their condition..A good check is with the car on stands, placing your hands at 6&12 o'clock and rocking the tire will give you an idea about the wheel bearings. By jacking up the car just a bit and placing a long pry bar under the tire and observing the lash in the ball joint will give you an idea there about the wear. While it is jacked up and on the stand by placing your hands a 3 and 9 o'clock and observing the tie rod end will give you an idea about the wear, there also. If you disconnect the outer tie rod from the spindle, you can check the inner tie rod for wear. If you move it up and it falls down or feels loose and sloppy then it too needs to be replaced. The inner tie rod arms should be stiff and somewhat hard to move. Your front end guy should be able to give it a thorough check out. Stand by for some fairly intense pricing..The inners are somewhat expensive. The rest are pretty cheap..just some pointers and an idea as to what to expect.

 

Ok, sounds like pretty standard stuff. Thanks.

 

I'd like to that for some reason a leaking PS rack seems to influence pulling or better described "drifting" to one side (ie. the downward slope side of the road crown)

I am suggesting this as I had for years this type of "follow the road slope" behaviour esp. towards the left... I had alignments... front end points professionally and amateurly checked... nothing. Then I switched to a rebuilt manual rack and the car instantly stopped following the slope. This with a diy string alignment that is surely way off.

Could also be that I changed the intermediate steering rod/shaft with a new one... though I don't notice the steering being any tighter

 

...I also had wheel vibration at 100-110kph no matter what wheel/tire combo; recently switched out the wheel bearings and it's gone