My last 914 was pretty easy to steer. I even replaced the stock wheel with an aftermarket smaller one. Wondering from the great experience here on what to look at for replacement. Steering is worse than an old truck.

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Hmmm, it shouldn't be.
I have the same size steering wheel as you and neither my 225x50 street tires nor my 10" slicks are hard to steer.

Alignment? my 75 use to have a hard steering like having a newer car with non working power steering. did a manual alignment inside my garage and it changed a lot then replace old tires and it improved more. maybe with a good shop alignment and it make it perfect but for now I have a better steering.

Right now have some used 165/80/R15 tires on it that are a little tall. Would you think this could be the issue and I need some lower profile tires? They are on Riviera rims

No. 165s should not be hard to steer. Ever.

Something else is going on ...

Lot's of caster will make it hard(er) to turn the wheel.

Yep, that is what I need to figure out. Turning the wheel takes alot of effort. The tire size is OEM on it. I have no suspension work on it. There is no strange camber I can see.

Any slack in the steering wheel?

Something is wrong. Try alignment first.
Actually, jack up the front of the car, try turning the wheels, if they turn easily, check alignment.

The smaller wheel is actually harder to turn than the larger stock wheel, so there's that. Not trying to be insulting, but we have to cover the basics, what is your tire pressure? Low tire pressure will increase effort. Caster is a big one as far as effort is concerned. Older tires can be a bear to turn as well...

One simple thing to check: jack up the front and see if you can turn the wheels with your hands ..on the wheel.
You should be able to spin it stop to stop with fairly low effort.

Thanks to all for the input. All of the wheel bearings are shot, the tire pressure is right on so that is taken care of. I have 2 rear calipers going on, all 4 new brake discs and front and rear wheel bearings. Once those are in I will get the allignment. Now, if all that fails...what would be next if problem is not solved?

It doesn't make sense to answer "what if" questions if your not going to do the initial diagnosis - i.e. Jack up the car, as well as fixing your known problems.

One step at a time.
Jack the front up and try moving the wheel with tires.

Plus One for this. . too much caster means the angle of rotation is leaning backward, Think of a chopper motorcycle front end.
What happens is the weight of the car forces the wheels to track straight ahead, and when you try to turn you are in essence lifting the front end with the steering wheel. .

Also look for bent parts in tie-rod ends/tie-rods/ends-of-rack.

The U-joints in the column might be binding.

--DD