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Did the Kanter front end rebuild. When I was removing the old lower ball joints I noted that the nuts were real loose on the bolts. In fact I could turn most of them off by hand. When I had the front end aligned by an old school guy he told me that it was a common problem on most of the cars from that era. The replacement bolts usually didn't have lock washers or they were install without. Also some shops didn't clean the old grime out of the ball joint mount and installed it over top of the dirt. When the dirt washed away you had a loose ball joint. You might want to check the bolts on yours-that front end slop may just be a loose ball joint. With a pry bar under the tire I could raise the ball joint a 1/4 inch! So check em and tighten em!!
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I'm in mid-rebuild on mine. I found the rear pivot bolt (the one that bolts to the tubular cross member) on the passenger lower control arm loose. I twisted it off by hand. For those who don't know, this is one of 2 (plus the ball joint) that hold the control arm in the car.
Of course, with that big pin pushed in from the opposite side of the cross member tube, it's highly unlikely that it would have come off. It was still a bit disconcerting, though.
I wonder how ling it was like that.
On an unrelated note, I found missing or loose bolts on a motor mount on my 1999 Odyssey this week too. My cars are falling apart!
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