Steering rack replacement instructions please?

I suspect the issue is in the steering gear. More then likely this will not act up if you lift the front tires but we need to try. We need to take the load off the tires and see if the issue happens. If it does then you can see if there are any components binding causing this issue.

However, I suspect you will not see any binding which indicates the gear is the issue.

Let me know what you find. Thanks

Well, this truck has electronic steering.

Okay. That is good information. Here is the process for the electronic gear. It does not change much as I suspect something is binding internally to the gear. Clearly the binding and then the pop points towards this.

The procedure looks fairly simple, but good god are these racks expensive, and I don't know how to reprogram it.

You need a scan tool capable of performing the configuration. Yeah. They are not cheap which is why we need to confirm there are no other components binding. I would recommend trying to duplicate this on jack stands so that you can get better access. At the very least does it do it sitting still?

It has done it once or twice when I got home and parked it, and spun the steering wheel on my concrete garage floor.

So on a concrete garage floor it does it less often? So in other words when you are on a smooth surface with less resistance it is better? If so, then I suspect it is something in the gear.

Yes, even today I had to use two hands to turn it last way left, but it never does that bad while driving.

So it binds so badly that you need two hands to turn it? Then it does this popping and it is easy to turn again? If it is just hard to steering all the time then that is different then what you said at the beginning. That sounds like a pump or pressure issue and not a binding in the gear.

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/power-steering-problems

It is very finicky. But no pump - it's electric. And the two handed turning in the driveway happened after I opened this discussion ironically. And, it's not an audible "pop" , it's like it takes a little but extra effort, not much, to pull the steering wheel out of where it's stuck, and it overcorrects. That's what it does while driving.

Oh. Okay. That pop and over correct is a binding. Basically since it is electric it is seeing the increase in pressure and once it pops that added assist due to the higher pressure causes the over correct.