02 Sport. Had a front wheel come off a while back, at low speed while turning. I was lucky and truck wasnt hurt too badly. Forever to find a fender replacement...also replaced the outer tie rod, lower bj, spindle and bearing and put all back together, drove fine. A month or two later heard power steering vane pump whining, and loss of power at times in the steering wheel - it would have hard spots in the circle of motion, requiring a lot of muscle from me to turn the wheel. So I replaced the pump, bled the system multiple times, by methods both on here and youtube, but I still have some, not as much, but still some hard spots in the circle of motion, especially when the engine is cold such as backing out of the driveway.

Question is - could the wheel coming off have damaged the steering rack as well? It was low speed when the lbj met the ground, like 5 mph, in the middle of a very slow and cautious turn (because I knew something was wrong) Ive owned 3 of these 4runners and never heard of steering rack failures. This unit only has 138k miles. Hate to pony up another $250 if its not needed....

what do you guys think? maybe its a dumb question, but wanted to be sure there wasnt some other suspected part before I go yanking the rack....