That's probably what the original guy did. Do what Jeff said--center the rack, then center the steering wheel, THEN get a proper alignment with both of those already centered.

 

Dup post!

 

Not following it all but this is good advice. I'm a bit concerned about the steering wheel. Isn't there an issue with later steering wheels with airbags? No airbag or is the air all mine?

I'd see where the wheel is at after centering the rack. Leave it alone if it's close.

 

He already centered the rack.

 

No airbag wheels are very easy to centre. The ones with it, you just have to make sure to move the clock spring in the same direction as yo will move the wheel, that's all.

 

No airbags (afaik), were they even offered in 88? I don't have a warning light for them nor any printed indication on the steering wheel or interior

 

No, not until '90.

The initial problem was that sometime in the past the rack was replaced by one that was not clocked the same. There is a flat where the steering shaft attaches, and it can only go on one way. If the replacement rack is not clocked the same way then the steering wheel will be off. It can be fixed by re-clocking the rack (1-minute job if the rack is out), removing and centering the steering wheel (5-min job), or messing with the tie-rods (10-min job and makes the steering asymmetric). Only a real hack would do the latter.

Just remove the steering wheel and re-center it, as suggested above.

 

Since I put the car up on all 4 corners last weekend to change the ATF/filter, I addressed the rack issue today. I easily found the alignment hole in the rack and screwed a pointed 12mm bolt into it to hold.

I pulled the steering wheel and centered it, no problem.

I adjusted the toe on the tie rods to be roughly even by measuring from the frame rail to the back side of the rim. By eye it looks like the wheels are basically even with a few degrees of toe. When the car settles on its suspension, does this generally increase or decrease toe? I'd like to get it as close as possible. If possible.

 

Decrease...and decrease even more depnding on the stiffness of your suspension and especially while braking sharply.

Brian.

 

And to emphasize, the wheels turn for more toe-out as the car settles.

"A few degrees" is way too much and it'll still be too much when it settles. I go for zero toe when I'm working on the suspension. Once it's settled, it goes in to a shop for an alignment.

 

Thanks, will aim for as close to zero as possible