1988 240 Service Garage recommended new tie rod ends, rubber boots were broken, had them replace inners and outers. (this is the same car that had the intermittant starting issue-resolved throught wiring) they outsourced the allignment.
I followed my wife home and I can see that the rear wheels are not following directly behind the fronts,they are about a half inch to the right, also the center position (Neutral) of the steering is overly soft (too big? Too wide?) the steering is tight, but it does not feel as thought if finds a true centered position.
My service writer tells me there is no rear end allignment on these cars, which I find to be useless information, you can make the rears track with the fronts through a front end allignment can you not?
I'm not a mechanic but it seems to me that if the caster setting was not negative enough it would cause the steering to not return to a true centered "Home" position. This may also explain the non tracking issue between the front and back? Any ideas? (I think I'm about finished with these folks.)

 

There is no rear adjustment on the stock Volvo suspension.
You will have to add an adjustable panhard bar if you want adjustability.

The front alignment could probably be redone to recenter everything.

 

steering that wanders on the road and doesn't center typically doesn't have quite enough toe-in. steering that pulls too hard towards 'straight' has too much toe-in.

the rear end is a live axle, the rear wheels HAVE to be parallel, and the distance between them is fixed, its impossible for them to be any other way. the overall left-right of them is determined by the panhard rod, and due to the geometry it shifts slightly left-right as the rear end of the car goes up/down due to load.

its quite possible worn front end control arm bushings are making your front end alignment less precise than it could/should be.

 

Have the rear bushings checked. Chances are one or more of them is shot. This can cause the rear to crab or not track behind the fronts. The soft steering could be from this or it could be that your alignment or front geometry is not right. They should be checking the front suspension before doing an alignment.

 

In alignments, total wheel alignment is the goal,not just the front end.The thrust angle is where the rear axle points in relation to the center line of the vehicle. The alignment shop should have seen the thrust angle is off,and investigate the cause. Did they give you a before and after print out ?