Excessive play in steering wheel ?

How do you know? HOW DO YOU KNOW?

Do you have a working crystal ball? Can you see through the internet? Do you have mental telepathy? No way in the world can you KNOW that his ENTIRE front end needs rebuilding. No way, no how. It certainly MIGHT, but to arbitrarily arm chair a GUESS is irresponsible of you and to him.

gdizzle, you need to get the car on jack stands in the front and while looking under it as someone rocks the wheel back and forth from the inside, look for and loose suspension parts. Look at all the joints where the tie rods are connected both inner and outer. Look closely at the idler arm. Grab it and see if there is any vertical movement.

After that, lower the car back down. Jack each side up one at the time with the jack under the lower control arm with the tire about 4" off the ground. Place a long prybar under each tire and pry up hard. Look at the upper and lower ball joints and see if there is any vertical movement in them.

Closely inspect the upper and lower control arm bushings and see if the rubber is distorted. Check to see if there is play in the steering coupler, just in front of the firewall.

Look to see if there is any play in the steering gearbox as someone rocks the wheel back and forth. Look at the pitman arm and make sure it is rocking back and forth the same as the steering shaft. If it is not, the gearbox has wear.

Some of yall love to spend other peoples' money. Not one single damned one of you knows what's wrong with the OP's car, yet you are ready to spout off that everything is toast when you cannot even see it.

He may need everything. But to arbitrarily tell him that, without explaining to him how to inspect it himself and LEARN and FIND OUT on his own is about as stupid as it gets.

Well good morning RRR. Its an early a body. These cars are overlooked by most of the hotrod hobbyist's. They are primarily driven into the ground and neglected. The ones that are in pristine condition or are "hot rodded" generally don't end up in the hands of "entry level enthusiasts" as daily drivers. Every mopar I have ever owned would benefit from a simple front end rebuild. I would bet money that this guys car has stock worn out suspension components. I based my opinion on my own personal experience. Could he have a blown out ball joint? sloppy tie rod ends? Well yes he could. But....... the amount of slop he is describing sounds to me like the culmination of several sloppy joints. If your going to dig in and replace just the worst offenders and leave the other marginal joints in place you are simply changing the weakest link. These cars are pretty lack luster in steering feel even with all new bushings, ball joints and tie rods so if he changed one or two parts at a time it may have still felt "loose".

You did give the OP a very descriptive process of elimination to follow and I agree with it. In the end I still think its going to need a rebuild which these days is pretty inexpensive and common. Even a novice can do it with a service manual and the help of this forum.

To the original poster:

If you have any question about what a part is or looks like or where to find it let us know. no dumb questions here. I am the first to say that we all start somewhere. I have learned more on this forum then any other source. fire away with the questions.