Folks-

I've got a problem I'm trying to figure out.

In the last year I've been having issues with steering wheel vibration at speeds over 55 or so. It doesn't seem to be due to the quality of the roads either, sometimes I'll be at 55-60 on a so-so road and the vibration is minimal/non existent, and sometimes on smoother roads it might vibrate.

I suspected tires at first. I have a set of Hankooks on that I didn't rotate for a long time, I bought them new in Oregon and put close to 7k on the vehicle. So I took the van in and had the tires balanced and rotated.

And guess what, at first the ride seemed worse! I hardly ever have to go over 55 here so it hasn't been a big deal but when I get on the Interstate its nice to hit 60-65 without the vibration.

So, today I went out and rotated my own tires. I noticed that the left front tire was very worn on the outside edge only. No other tire showed strange wear patterns, which is funny because if the tires were rotated before then there should be another tire with wear too, right?

Anyway a light bulb went off as I realized that the LF side is where I was told I had a bad lower ball joint. Could this be my issue? It hasn't been anything that's bothered me so I never thought about having it fixed. I was hoping it might just be an alignment thing but I hate to pay for an alignment only to have it be not the problem!

Any thoughts? thanks!

Mark in Maine w/ '87 4WD LE