Downsouth UCAs + new steering rack issues @ 60K miles?!

Hello all, I have an 08 TRD sport/2WD with 97K miles. The 2.5in Icon lift + "Downsouth Motorsports" UCAs was installed roughly 60k miles ago (at 35-40k miles then/2010).
About 2-3yrs ago, I developed a steering rack leak on pass side...no biggie. I finally got around to pulling the trigger on a brand new OEM rack from Toyota last week, but for convenience, I paid "Sun Auto" garage to install it since I could simply walk to work after dropping the truck to them.

The truck never had any steering symptoms prior to installation. But, since the installation, the truck will not steer as normal. While driving at ANY speed, the steering will not re-center itself once I let go of the steering wheel. In other words, once I let go of the wheel during a turn, the steering only partially goes back towards center (maybe 1/2 way at best), while holding the turn.....the truck will keep turning rather.

Long story made short, the dealer and the small garage are blaming the UCA ball joints for being too worn and stiff, causing the steering to stick in the turns. However, I never bough the rack because I had any steering symptoms. I only bought it for the leak. But, im being told the wheel/tires are tough to turn by hand while the truck is on the lift with the steering linkages disconnected. Kinda felt normal to me with 60lb Nittos hanging with suspension at max travel on the lift, but who am I to argue with them other than to say "the truck steered normal last Thursday!

So, are these guys "reaching" for a cop-out, or can 60k mile ball joints (on a mall crawler) keep a new steering rack from returning to center at ANY speed??

Thanks in advance! ​

sean

 

Bump

Looking for any input, good or bad, from anyone whose had a steering rack installed in their 2nd gen.

Thanks!

 

How's the alignment after the install look? They had to remove and reinstall the tie-rods.. Out of toe will cause it not to re-center.

 

Well, I had taken it to Toyota and explained to them what all went down and their mechanic drove it with me and said yeah, it's gotta just be a jacked up alignment. Cool....or so I thought.

Went back to the shop that installed it and got it back on the alignment rack. They kept fighting and fighting it, claiming that every time they rolled the truck back to verify the settings, the upper control arms would allow for the alignment to get way off base. Whatever...so, I asked for my alignment money back and said I'll let Toyota deal with the alignment. Cool....or so I thought.

Back at Toyota and on their lift, initially, all the guys (like 4 mechanics + service writers) all agreed 100% that the first mechanic messed up the new steering rack - because he admitted to me that he had to disassemble the rack in order to fit it into position. Toyota said, no he shouldn't have had to do that! Well, I call the shop in front of Toyota staff and they agreed over the phone to also refund me the $575 in labor. Cool....or so I thought.

3 more hours more go by at Toyota and suddenly they're all fucking telling me it's the ball joints binding up the steering and that they cant actually find anything wrong with the rack afterall. Totally flipped the script on me! So, now I have both shops blaming the ball joints which appear fine, have had very LIGHT offroad duty over their time AND, the F'n truck turned beautifully just prior to the rack install.
To make matters worse, I go to the first shop Sat morning to get my $575 refund on labor and they tell me then that Toyota had called them back on Friday and admitted they couldn't actually find anything wrong with the rack! WTF....there goes my $575 forever now, and I have Toyota believing suddenly that I have perfect steering, but need to service the UCAs. Meanwhile, I'm royally F'ed because shop #1 allowed me to supply the OEM rack myself since I have a parts connection and that they couldn't quote the job with an OEM rack.

So, Im stuck with a truck that doesn't steer properly and nobody wants to touch the rack because "it's my UCAs"