Tie rod ends, they should move...

... fairly easily, yes?

I think the answer is that they should require very little effort to move.

Tie rod ends on the answer take, oh, a guess, like 15-20ft lbs to move, tie rod ends on the e30 move pretty freely - like 3ft lbs.  Those are not actual measurements, mind you, just a ball park, but it gives an idea.

Pretty sure the answer needs new tie rod ends - yes?

I think they loosen up with wear and not tighten up. Mostly though you want to be checking for "play" - it shouldn't have any movement in the joint other than the intended swivel. 

The ones that move easily are probably more worn.

That said, the e30 drives really nice - the miata, despite reducing my spring rate in the front recently, rides worse than ever.  I'll head to the parts store, see what some new tie rod ends feel like. 

I just don't recall them being as tight as they are on the miata, but maybe that's normal.

How are the shocks in the Miata? They're very sensitive to shock wear in my opinion and the oem shocks don't last long. My NB shocks were plum worn out at about 50k miles and new shocks made it ride a thousand times better. I went KYB AGX set on full soft. I'm sure there are better shocks but I was happy. 

If it's steering effort, it's probably the bottom ball joint that the hub sits on..  At least it was on my car.  Replace both sides, or you'll be doing the other one soon.

I'm on Koni yellows and GC sleeves.

I thought about the possibility they're blown, but they seemed to perform well on some unexpected bumps - yes, I hit the FCM bumpstops pretty hard but performance over other bumps and road imperfections feels about as before.

I do seem to be getting more cowl shake lately, but it's not terribly consistent; over some pavement irregularities, not so bad, other times on the same surface, feels like the car is going to shake apart.

Nothing seems loose component wise, wheel bearings are still tight - took a pry bar to ball joints/control arm surfaces, no movement.

I will say that the car got noticeably worse after an autocross about a month ago on a rough airport surface.  I had some sag in front ride height after that event (no change at all in the rear, though) - whether that's a crappy spring or what, not sure.  And not long after that event, had some creaking at the rear too - but that's not consistent either.  What is consistent is that everything started after that autocross.

I thought about swapping the suspension out with some known good units, but that seems a lot of work; trying to run everything else down first.  

In reply to WonkoTheSane :

No noticeable change in steering effort, but power steering would hide that, right?

I thought about ball joints, but they seem to be ok - what's a good test for them (car is on jack stands right now)?

 Well, with everything else checking out,  figure it might just be the dampers. 

It was.... ugh.