My 97SE 5spd has steadily gotten to where any little bump, breeze, or whatever will make the steering wheel move a bit and force me to correct my direction. There's practically no resistance to a change in the steering position. It no longer holds a line on a flat road and it moves in random directions.
It's annoying to have to constantly correct the car to hold a straight line. I've had tires, joints, bearings, and alignments checked out over the last 40k and the symptoms have only gotten slowly worse.

Seeing the FSM section on the steering system, there is a rack slider tension adjustment which indicates the rack should slide with a certain force. I suspect mine is under spec, causing practically any little thing to change the car's direction.

Anyone had these specs changed? Did it affect your steering feel?

Dave