Can anyone tell me the symptoms of bad lower ball joints? I have a problem in the front end thats driving me nuts! Its a 94 with 80,000 miles on it.
At about 60 mph, the front steering wheel starts to wobble back and forth a little. It doesn't go away really, but it gets better at around 75-80 mph. Any speed below 60 mph, and its smooth. At first i blamed poor balancing of my tires. Got it checked, and they were fine. They checked the front end also. No problems could be found. I even rotated the tires to the back one at a time, and there was no difference. It even does this going around curves, so I ruled out wheel bearings (I checked for this also while on the lift).
I'm at a loss. It really sucks that I can't enjoy my car for a short trip down the interstate. its been doing this for a year now, and no one can find anything wrong.

Also, when I back out of a parking spot with the wheels turned almost all the way to one side, the front end feels like I have a out of round tire or something (but I don't). It kind of kicks over like something is out of round while backing out.

 

Mine has always done that backing up. Like the tires are dragging sideways. My friend had that problem with the shaking between certain speeds. It was a bent wheel but you said you eliminated that possibility.

 

Wore ball joints will make the wheels vibrate under heavy braking. The stock ball joints are notorious for wearing out early. They will make a popping/cracking noise when stating/stopping and turning at real slow speeds. Leave the job to a tire & brake shop.

Also, the wheel bearing assembly wears out, and causes wandering and sloppy response. Easy job for the shadetree mechanic.