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Let's start with the alignment issue. I could be your tires just as easily as anything else. That front end is adjustable for toe and possibly camber with some mods but caster is fixed. You could have blown out rear control arm bushings which will effect your caster big time. Camber is generally considered a wearing angle, caster on the other hand is a pulling angle so if it is off you will notice a pull and if camber is out you will notice uneven tire wear. The toes setting can cause either one or both as well as a crooked steering wheel. To me it sounds like you need to see a competent front end and alignment guy and it sure would be nice if he was qualified to work on your Volvo as well.
The steering chatter sounds like a classic case of the cooling loop doing it's thing. The early 960's have a steel line kind of in the shape of a loop that sits the the left front corner of the car. If you put the car in the air and looked up into that corner it would be in your face. What typically happens is that the pump pulsations, especially at low speeds, cause this darn thing to vibrate and chatter. It's damn annoying to say the least. They had a couple of fixes for that back in the day, they start by installing a "soft return line". This is nothing more than a loop for your loop only instead of being steel it is just reinforced rubber line. This line will swell ever so slightly when there is a case of pump pulsations going through it. The next thing they did if it persisted was change to Pentosin fluid. The stuff is green, smells different than regular type red atf, works well, and costs more. As a last resort and never endorsed or condoned by Volvo Cars was to take the metal cooling loop and install it in the trash can. I have had good luck with installing just the type green pentosin fluid but usually we would just do both options one and two in one shot. Install the soft return line and flush and fill with the type green pentosin.
I worked for BMW for a couple of years after Volvo and before I opened my own shop and they ran two different kinds of type green and also ran your run of the mill Dex III type red and they never had these kind of problems but a lot of there larger stuff does not run rack and pinions either.
Hope this helps
Mark
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