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That is exactly the symptom my car had, and it turned out to be the lower steering u-joint. One test is to spray some WD or other on the joint, after it's soaked in a bit see if it's the same. I found that the spray would last a few days. The joint does not get loose, it gets tight, so checking for slop won't help IMO. After I replaced it steering was clearly better.
The lower seems to take more side load than the upper. The procedure briefly is to take out the safety wire on the pinch bolts, remove the bolts, slide the joint up the shaft, reverse. In practice I had a hard time taking it out, it didn't want to slide up very easily and prying it open was necessary.
Do try to ensure you align the wheels and so on so it goes back the same way. Some, the pinch bolt can only go one way in the cutaway on the rack shaft so it's almost impossible to reinstall incorrectly, but some have a groove around the splined shaft and no positive reference, so there are many ways to put it back together.
In looking into how to do it, I got lucky and found an almost new joint at pnp for $5.
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