Steering 'cut out' trying to turn into a parking spot

This happened once before about a month ago too. Basically I pulled into a parking lot and went to make a sharp left turn into a spot, and the truck just plain didn't turn when I turned the wheel. I threw it in reverse backed up a little, then pulled forward and tried again and it worked. The first time this happened I thought I was just imagining things because it was a one time thing, but obviously something is wrong. What am I looking at here?

2003 V6 4x4 xtracab. ~120,000 miles

 

Sounds like the P/S pump is on its way out

 

Yeah my P/S pump took a crap at 115K. I never had that problem though.

 

I'll probably call and get it in the shop here soon.

 

If your power steering pump is weak, it can temporarily loose pressure when the engine RPMs drop suddenly (i.e. letting off while turning into a spot).

 

could u have accidentally been in 4x4?

 

Well that's good to know, wonder if a shop will be able to actually diagnose the pump if this is an infrequent problem.

Nope definitely wasn't in 4x4.