Hi all! So my lil 1990 Ranger xlt 2.9 v6 just got hit and ran on. It was on the corner, wheels straight, steering lock on, and someone came around and nailed the front driver side. My left wheel was pointing left, and my right wheel slightly right and the tie rods were bent. I heated them and bent them back so the wheels sat straightish. Now heres the problem. Now the steering wheel sits 90 degrees off center when driving straight. I fixed the alignment so that the truck will cruise a straight line with your hands off the wheel, but the wheel is cocked 90 degrees. Could the impact have rotated the wheels while keeping the steering wheel straight? What splines or shafts could have slipped and where would I look to check this? I assume because the steering lock was on and the wheels got the **** knocked out of them that the steering shaft spline jumped a couple teeth but i don't know how to go about fixing that. thanks!

 

crawl under the truck with the wheel straight and look at the pitman arm. Is it straight? If not, you have more parts bent.

Second, heating and bending steering components is a cheap and shitty way to fix it. I pray one doesn't break while your driving and kill somone.

 

I'm still learning truck ****, I build motorcycles for a living, so I wouldn't have known to look at the pitman arm, thanks man. As for heating parts and hitting em with a hammer, I wouldn't do it unless I was stuck somewhere. Here in Virginia if you don't have the money for a tow and you are stuck, you better pull out your inner redneck and get fixin or your walkin. Its been parked while i figure out what I need to rip apart and replace, hence the forum posting

 

Yes, steering wheel shaft connects to Steering box, steering box is bolted to the frame, it has a splined shaft that sticks out and the splined Pitman arm is bolted to that shaft
Pittman arm connects to the Tie rods

If your steering wheel is off to one side then you will need to unbolt pitman arm, put wheels straight and steering wheel straight and rebolt pitman arm to shaft
When pitman arm is off make sure to turn steering wheel "lock to lock"(all the way left and all the way right) then back to find the center

On some models you can not move pitman arm on the shaft, double splines prevent it, if thats the case then you have to use tie rod adjustments to straighten the steering wheel

Yes, +1, the heating and cooling of metal can make it brittle, judgement call on your part, not a "redneck" thing, just a judgement call
You can fix pretty much anything with bailing wire, duct tape, hammer and pliers, judgement call if you trust your life to that fix, lol.