Hi all, first post on the forum here, I'm looking forward to starting a build thread as I slowly start upgrading my 1985 2wd pickup.

However, before that happens, I'm hoping to get some assistance with a steadily growing steering problem that resulted from an innocent-enough 2" body lift (my first step towards a "proper" suspension lift down the road.)

I have a manual steering gearbox and the 2-piece steering column with the little plastic pins you can drill out to extend or compress the shaft. The 4Crawler site suggested that you could just drill these pins out prior to performing the lift, and let the stress on the joint pull it apart. Well, that didn't happen after the cab went up, but the shaft didn't seem noticeably under stress, so I let it be... until a few days later, when the unextended steering column shredded the rag joint in the middle of a busy street on a Friday night, lol.

Anyway, my "fix" was some bolts thru the fittings on the steering column and gearbox, and thick washers to take up the space where the rag joint used to be, as several people on the web have said to have done. It worked, but the steering was noticeably clunkier than usual - it developed some "hard" spots, for lack of a better description, and it was noticeably more difficult to turn the steering wheel, particularly at low speeds, where I sometimes had to put a good bit of body weight on the wheel to get it to turn.

Fast forward a few weeks to today, and the steering has deteriorated to the point where I needed a more permanent fix. I had removed the entire steering column already, greased all the bearings, checked for any obvious wear, but not discovered anything out of the ordinary for a 40 y/o truck -- EXCEPT that the lower steering column (or 'intermediate steering shaft' to use Toyota FSM language) had still not extended one bit. A couple hours with a cold chisel, torch and BFH later and I finally got it fully compressed, extended and apart, and hoped the end was near for this steering issue, and everything would be as it was pre-lift now that I could take the stressed steering column out of the equation.

Instead, something new occurred which has made the truck pretty well undriveable: the steering wheel will now only rotate in increments of 180 degrees. From in the car, I can push the steering wheel maybe an inch in either direction, then there is a huge amount of resistance, and then the wheel will give and flip upside down, rotating the tires a sizable (but accurate) amount.

I count exactly two full turns in each direction to reach full extension on the steering, which is normal for this truck. The steering acts identically whether the tires are on or off the ground - other than being slightly easier to turn when the front is jacked up. When the steering wheel is disconnected from the gearbox, it turns perfectly smoothly -- actually, it turns better than it did before I took it apart. It's only when the wheel is connected to the gearbox that it turns like this. I can't see anything binding that would make me think the issue was a ball joint, steering dampener, etc .. although those are due to be replaced in the near future anyway. So, my thought is that the manual steering gearbox is somehow damaged -- perhaps the worm gear was pulled out of whatever it connects to in there, or some of the bearings were damaged, or ...? I really have no experience with manual steering repairs because in my experience these systems have been pretty bulletproof. But before I get to disassembling the gearbox, I wanted to ask for any advice, and if the symptoms I've described might point to something either simpler or more obscure to test.

Below is a short video from below the gearbox, of mostly the pitman arm and steering column. This is with the front wheels off the ground.

Thanks so much in advance for the help, everyone! Looking forward to being part of this community.