[Spridgets] Front suspension causing car to have mind of its own (and hello)

[Chris Rae]

First off, hello - have been lurking here for a few weeks reading about holy
sprites, but I've now bolstered up courage to ask something.

I have recently become the proud owner of a '65 Sprite. I have no idea what
I'm doing. I've never lifted a finger to repair my own car before, and so far
this has been a genuinely interesting exercise in doing things not quite the
right way. I've managed to fix up a few obvious things that are wrong and am
in the process of stopping it from overheating (bah), but now I have a
question that I don't even know where to start with.

The car has a habit of rather violently leaping in some random direction
(well, actually, come to think of it it's always to the right) whilst zooming
down the freeway. Well, I say zooming, but it's probably about 50mph. It's a
reasonably unsettling manoeuvre - I am 100% sure that it's not a steering
problem and is some sort of issue with the way in which the wheels are
connected to the body, or with the suspension. The nearest thing I can equate
it to is that it feels much like a giant hand has come down and given the nose
of my car a shove to the right.

Any ideas? I've done the moron diagnosis of waggling the tires and peering to
see if anything has fallen off, but there's nothing obvious. Also they appear
to have forgotten to put shocks on the car in the factory, because I can't see
where they are?! Are they in the strange magic box that's at the top of one of
the arms?

Any help much appreciated,

Chris (Seattle, WA right now, but formerly Edinburgh, UK)