Steering lock issue?

[Truck4]

Me driving through parking lot, go to turn into a parking space and get the wheel turned 1 revolution and steering locks up. Couldn't turn further nor go back straight. Now I'm stuck half pulled into a parking spot. Turn the engine off and restart and wheel still locked. Can turn freely a couple degrees each direction but then hits a stop. Didn't try and force the wheel because I didn't know why it wasn't moving (didn't want to break more shit). Throw the guy in reverse and back out a bit and then steering wheel unlocks. Turn the wheel from full left to full right and issue is completely gone. Thankfully I wasn't on the highway or going fast when this happened.

Steering is very tight and steering rack is new within 50k miles. Engine had just warmed up. Checked my power steering fluid and it is just above the "full" line. The power steering belt has always squeaked when i hit the bump stops, but I think this is pretty normal. Never had any issues before or since regarding steering.

Vehicle is a '98 SR5 Manual with 215k on it.

Any thoughts as to a cause? My goto idea is that the pinion might be worn out and maybe just got bound up in the rack? Could this issue not even be related to the rack and pinion?

 

[EJosephs]

Me driving through parking lot, go to turn into a parking space and get the wheel turned 1 revolution and steering locks up. Couldn't turn further nor go back straight. Now I'm stuck half pulled into a parking spot. Turn the engine off and restart and wheel still locked. Can turn freely a couple degrees each direction but then hits a stop. Didn't try and force the wheel because I didn't know why it wasn't moving (didn't want to break more shit). Throw the guy in reverse and back out a bit and then steering wheel unlocks. Turn the wheel from full left to full right and issue is completely gone. Thankfully I wasn't on the highway or going fast when this happened.

Steering is very tight and steering rack is new within 50k miles. Engine had just warmed up. Checked my power steering fluid and it is just above the "full" line. The power steering belt has always squeaked when i hit the bump stops, but I think this is pretty normal. Never had any issues before or since regarding steering.

Vehicle is a '98 SR5 Manual with 215k on it.

Any thoughts as to a cause? My goto idea is that the pinion might be worn out and maybe just got bound up in the rack? Could this issue not even be related to the rack and pinion?

Did you ever find out the cause of this issue? My 98 is slowly developing a very similar issue where the wheel will lock up while driving, although it usually only picks one direction to lock against while the other direction remains loose. Trying to search on this site and google for the steering column lock mechanism is very very hard, because every result is either describing the issue with no resolution, or talking about the key locking up when parked.

EDIT: My best guess at this point is that the steering column lock pin, located in the back of the ignition key housing assembly, is worn down and protruding when it shouldn't. I'm not quite sure how to troubleshoot it yet.