Thanks for the reply RallyPanam. I am a total beginner and have no technical experience. That being said, based on my research here, I think I need tie rod ends, ball joints, sway bar bushings, and then someone with knowledge to take a look at my drivers side front wheel.
I was chewing through the inside edge of my driver side tire and took my van to an alignment shop thinking the alignment was off. It was off but the odd thing was that when the van was on the lift the driver side front wheel had about 4-6" of play when spinning it. The tech was grabbing the wheel with two hands and spinning the wheel slowly. The tire/wheel would move about 4-6" and the rotor would not move at all.
The main mechanic guy was freaking out about how it was a big deal, but the tech said it had to be that the lug nuts were bottomed out? They did not want to take off the wheel to investigate for the fear of something being wrong and not having the parts or time to fix it.
I called the previous owner and she spoke of some sort of Quigley bushing that has to be replaced every so often? My next stop after posting this is the Quigley website
I am heading out on a 6 month trip in a few weeks and wanted to be sure everything was good to go to put some serious miles on!