If the tie rods are going (to crap themselves) then you will hear them clunk when you move the wheel back and forth when its unloaded from weight (although a loose wheel bearing will give the same symotoms - its best donw with someone onder the car looking at what moves about) and by radius rods (old school name for them) I was reffering to the "tension" rods as per the wiki picture. When we pulled mine to rebush them, all the bushes basically disintergrated when the tension was released.

Another thing to check may be the steering box mounts. Mine were all ovaled out (maybe due to age) but I am currently looking at the steering box brace in the hope it may take some of the pressure off the box mounts