LOL! - I love how geoffff makes his
wife crawl under the van, while
he wiggles the steering wheel
That mechanic was seriously incompetant...I wouldn't trust him to sweep the shop floor!
If you don't have an assistant (or an obediant wife), you can first crawl under and do a visual inspection of all the little rubber boots covering the ball joints. If they are split and leaking grease, or worse, dried up and cracking with perhaps some rusty dust; then you will want to replace the ball joint, no question.
Next, use a trolley jack to lift the van so one front wheel is hanging in the air (you
MUST use an axel stand to support the frame solidly when you do this). Then with both hands, grasp the road wheel at the 3-O-clock and 9-O-clock posistions, and aggessively try rocking the road wheel from left to right. Since the other front wheel is still firmly planted on the ground, there should be no movement in the steering. If it does move, you will usually feel roughness or clicking, indicating a worn tie-rod end or drag-link ball-joint end. Usually you can stick your head over the top of the wheel and look down at the tie-rod end as you do this and actually see the looseness, if it's bad.
Next, with both hands, grasp the road wheel at the 12-O-clock and 6-O-clock posistions and try rocking the road wheel up and down. You will not be strong enough to cause the suspension to move, so any looseness or movement here is bad and would most likely indicate a loose or worn wheel bearing. If you are really aggressive and strong you may also detect looseness from a bad steering knuckle joint. However that is more easily detected in the next step.
With the axel stand still supporting the frame and the road wheel hanging, place the trolley jack under the lifted front wheel, whilst laying on the ground, in front and slightly under the van, with a good view of the steering knuckle. Now gently pump the jack to raise the road wheel (not too much, or the wheel might spin and dislodge the jack). You may need to pump and release the jack up and down gently a few times. If the steering knuckel joints are worn you will see/hear them move with looseness.
You could also try using a 24" crow-bar/nail bar and wedge it between a tie-rod or drag-link and some other solid part of the chassis. Then try to create downward and upward pressure on the ball joints...there should not be any detectble looseness other than the normal tight, but fluid motion of a ball joint rotating in it's socket .
That's all I got time for right now...hope it helps.