I pumped the tyres up to 36psi and sprayed some lubricant onto the steering UJ's. This made the steering significantly lighter - one of the tyres was at 12PSI so assuming it was mainly that causing the heavyness. Its still hella vague though, keeping it in a straight line is a challenge and it doesnt want to return to centre at all.
There was some knocking when driving on the new lighter steering. I'm waiting on some tools arriving but got under the car to take a look and shake stuff to see what's loose.
The drop links are toast and loose (probably visible from the images) - assuming these are at least one of the components causing the knocking. I already have new extended ones so those will be going on.
I tried to shake everything loose, the steering link and damper dont budge at all but I'll get the damper off and check steering without it anyway. the track rod and ends are all new and solid.
down behind the driverside wheel it looks like something is leaking. - I'm new the to the mechanics part, if any experienced eyes can let me know what I should be looking up to narrow down the video searches that would be a great help.


driverside3

driveside

driverside2

passenger side

steering link