Sounds to me like something jumped a couple teeth. I would either disassemble the rack and check for damage the put it back together with it centered on the input shaft or get a new rack.

 

Yeah, if there's no visible damage ^, that's almost gotta confirm the issue is within the rack itself.

 

Agree with above sounds like the hit caused the steering to jump a few teeth and now its not centered. You may be able to pull it apart and recenter everything but im betting their is something broke inside now or the gears are missing teeth... Surprising that the tie rod did not bend first.. Personally i would just replace the box even if nothing looked broke inside and you were able to realign everything do you want to take the chance of it failing due to unseen damage while someone is out on the trails at speed?

 

Just fyi that is not how these racks work. Even if the racks skips a tooth it will be able to turn left or right just as far. As you can see there are no stops on the worm gear to stop it grom spinning. What stops them is the inner ball joint hits on the rack itself as you can see in the first picture.

Now you could have bent something in the rack to stop it from going all the way.

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It would cause the steering wheel to be crooked when the wheels are straight though.

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It would cause the steering wheel to be crooked when the wheels are straight though.

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Thank you for the pictures. I'd have to double check on the steering wheel, I can't remember if it's straight or not. I'll be pulling it apart tomorrow and checking it out but I have a feeling he broke something inside the rack. My buddy is kind of an idiot. Lol

 

Well that'll cause it to steer a little strange. Lol

 

Well that'll cause it to steer a little strange. Lol View attachment 103076

That is kind of interesting it didn't bend a tie rod first. Never seen one bend like that.

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And their is the reason you keep the weakest link... I would rather change a tie rod then the expense of the whole rack

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