98 ranger took a beating, trying to revive

[reyy]

My boy wrecked his ranger. Its a 98, 2 wd with about 70 thousand miles on it. It took a hit from both sides of the front end. Passenger wheel is tilted in at the top. Im trying to get it driveable again till he can find something else. The truck is extremely hard to steer. So it went up on jack stands and it was still hard to steer in the air. So I removed the tie rods, and with nothing attached to the steering rack, it still has lots of resistance. Im assuming he destroyed the rack with the side impact he took. So now Im gonna see if I can adjust the front wheels to point straight and then replase the rack. Any thoughts? I have owened at least 5 Rangers through the years. Never had to deal with anything like this.

 

[1996xlt]

Are you sure the front of the frame isn't tweaked? I'd imagine being sandwiched liked that could've compromised the front cross member the rack mounts to and probably the control arms as well.

 

[reyy]

Lookin at it we figured the frame was tweeked the other day. Gonna send it to some one to see if its worth fixing now. More then I can handle in my garage, thanx.