It probably is true that my rack and pinion needs replacing. It's never not the most expensive reason. But, I had a notion. It just hit me that the only wheel doing the waggles was the one the mechanic guy said had the bad CV joint. After I went in and got both control arms and only one of my CV joints replaced, the wheel with the replaced CV joint started to waggle severely if I hit the right road condition at the right angle (pothole, road reflector, or even just a small hill). Only slowing down would cure it. The severe waggles didn't happen immediately. It was a few days later. After I had taken it on the highway for the first time to try to get the ODB tests to complete, when I got off the highway, the road conditions on the regular road were just right and the severe waggles appeared. The days before that, I had been getting some tiny waggles sometimes that only lasted a second. After the highway... severe waggles.

I went in today with the rack and pinion I bought from LKQ (at the suggestion of the repair place) so they could install it, but after the whole day went by I found out they hadn't even worked on my car (because, everyone that worked there quit, apparently). If everyone quit, they might have been disgruntled when they did my control arms and CV joint and might have done some subpar work that they blamed on the rack and pinion.

What are the odds that an alignment is all I need to fix my severe waggles?

I have some experience being led down the garden path by disreputable repair shops, so maybe I'm over sensitive when it comes to repair shops, but I'm asking anyway. Years ago a disreputable repair shop was in collusion with someone at the alignment shop they sent me to and my car started making noises after I went there for an alignment. The disreputable shop guy said it was some expensive repair I had to have him do that the alignment just revealed. (Some song and dance about the suspension spreading out because it was old.) Instead, I went to a different branch of the alignment place and a different guy aligned it and the noises went away and my car was fine for years without any suspension problems. That's where my notion came from that maybe my rack and pinion is fine and maybe an alignment was the real cure.

2001 Toyota Sienna. 243xxx miles.