new rack and pinion... and a strange issue

Now that the nice weather is here for us Canadians without a garage, it's time to get the Taco back in good shape

My apologies for flooding the forums with all my new questions. Don't worry, these are seasonal questions! HAHA!

So a couple months ago, my rack and pinion was leaking pretty bad. I ended up replacing it with an aftermarket one from detroitaxle.com.

I had a local shop do the install for me, and had Toyota dealership do an alignment after.

While the steering is so nice and smooth now, and everything seems fine, I do notice that the steering doesn't seem to "center" itself when I let go of the steering wheel. For example, if I make 4 full rotations of the steering wheel to turn left or right, when I let go to straighten out, the wheel spins back maybe 3.5 turns back. This forces me do slightly returning the wheel back the additional half a rotation to make the truck go straight.

Alignment doesn't seem to be the issue.

I didn't bother addressing this at the time, because recently toyota did the frame replacement on my truck.
After replacing the frame, they installed new 5100s up front set to 2.5, and re-did the alignment.

The same issue with the steering remains.

Has anybody experienced this? Is this a problem with the rack or is there an adjustment that can be made somehow?

I thought maybe when I lost steering fluid the pump was damaged, but it doesnt seem to cause any issues and it's not making nose and seems to function ok.

Thanks for your advice!

Edit: I spoke to the local shop again and they went over the work they did and double checked everything, and they can't see an issue. And as mentioned, Toyota did the frame replacement and they didn't catch anything either, so I would assume its a rack issue? Nobody ever caught it on a test drive it seems?

 

amp3d I too replaced my steering rack with one from detroitaxle and mine does basically the exact thing. I believe my truck is slightly out of alignment as I have not got it back in a shop since I put 5100s but I already had a lift so the alignment isn't that far out. I've been trying to play around with it more but like you weather has not permitted me. I though it was my power steering pump too and replaced that. The new one already has a high pitch whine and I'm pretty sure its a manufacturing defect so they sent me another one to replace it I just have yet to put it in. Mine will return almost to center but has about a .25 turn left to turn. One thing I was going to try was regular power steering fluid. Specified fluid type is Dexron II but I've wondered if with both a non-toyota power steering pump and a remanufactured rack if what ever they use in the re-manufacturing is designed for power steering fluid, might be thicker or something, just was going to try it and see if it made a difference.

 

I just got back from work, and should update that just like you, its closer to a 1/4 turn I need to do to return to centre.

Wow, this really sucks if it is an issue with the rack! Please keep me posted, and I will do the same.

I found detroitaxle based on some other posts around here somewhere, but I really hope we find a solution. I know you said you haven't done your alignment yet, but that probably will not resolve the issue.