Thanks, what am I looking for, or will it be obvious when I see it?
Here's link to some intermediate steering shafts so you will know what one looks like, not all of them are for your 4runner....but you will notice they all have a "U-joint", what you need to check for is play in the U-joint when you are turning the steering wheel left and right, if there's any play in the joint it would have a similar effect on your steering as a bad idler arm on older style steering setup would.