Toyota - Camry :: Steering Bad After Tire Alignment

After purchasing 2 new tires I went to a shop to get alignment done. The steering on my high mileage V4 1993 Toyota Camry was perfect when I took it to the alignment place. An hour later, the alignment having been done, as I was pulling out of the shop onto the road the steering was very hard but I thought something was tightened and would loosen up although I had never experienced that problem any other time an alignment was done. After driving it for several days, the problem wasn't improving. I left on a trip for several weeks. While gone my daughter drove the care for a few days and asked me what was wrong with the steering. When I returned I took the car back to the alignment shop and told them the problem. The manager or head mechanic checked the alignment and said the numbers were fine.

However, he said the rack and pinion needed replacing. I asked him what might have happened to result in the bad steering in the course of one hour while the alignment was done. He said that he didn't know. I took it to my usual mechanic who said that someone might have over tightened something. He's an older guy and does not want to work on racks and pinions. He suggested that I take it to Les Schwab and have them inspect it to see what's wrong and maybe tell them the whole story. I haven't done that yet.

After researching a bit about alignments, racks and pinions etc. I think that it is highly likely that some inexperienced person at the alignment place screwed up something. It's too much of a coincidence that exactly the hour that the alignment was done, the steering went bad. I am thinking that I might go back to the alignment place and ask them to do whatever they need to do to return the steering of my car to the way it was functioning when I brought it to them. They will likely refuse, of course.