So after a hard day of wheeling on the rocks my steering wheel is way off....truck was flex out on a rock to pose for some jeep boys and now the wheel is cocked - do I have to remove the steering shaft to get her lined up? I already tryed to flex out the other side but that didn't work and my adjustalbe drag link didn't help so until I do cross over is there a trick I'm missing.... sorry if this has already been on a thread but I search and found nothing for the 85 yota.

 

could be bent linkage. could also be bent/broken spring(s) or a flipped shackle keeping the truck from sitting level, a spring perch slipped on a spring... hard to say.
and don't limit yourself to the front end. something could be off in the rear too.

 

It sounds like you bent something. Pitman arm maybe. Is it the original steering system? The long tie rod or one of the steering arms could also be bent. The long tie rod connecting the left to right is the easiest part to bend. It hangs low on the O.E. setup. If you bent anything besides the pitman arm or the drag link you can expect the tires to start wearing badly.
Do the tires screech when doing a u-turn or other sharp turn?

 

You still have push pull steering?

If so
x2 on bent tie rod.

 

Both Marlin and Budbuilt sell very beefy tie-rods with FZJ80 tie-rod ends. They are a nice upgrade and not too expensive if you don't want to go to cross-over steering.

 

Ya, But it has the adjustable drag link for a 6 inch lift with the new steering arm...I just installed those thinking it would fix the problem, the truck drives straight and when I hit the brakes it doesn't pull and if it was the tie rod woudn't that be obvious? with my old k-5 blazer after a hard day on the rocks the steering would be cocked one way or the other and then I would flex it out and sometimes that would fix the problem but this doesn't work on the toy.
I was thinking of pulling the steering shaft and moving the steering wheel straight then sliding the shaft back in, I don't know if this is a smart thing to do but I guess you guys could be right on the bent tie rod cause I was hopping all over the place ( need lower gears etc.) and bashing axles, hit the rear driveline rear bumper etc so I might of hit tie rod but everything looks good on the front axle and steering parts....I guess I could buy one of those aftermarket steering wheels ?? I wonder if that would work.

 

Just remove the steering wheel and put it where it's straight if it bugs you that much. It takes two tools. Something bent in your steering system, I'd bet on a tie rod, but it could be the J-arm too.

 

Repositioning the wheel fixes it cosmetically, which is nice in the end but something shifted or bent and should be addressed. The J arm could be bent but you mentioned that you installed a new one after the problem came about.

An alignment will tell the mechanic (a good one) a lot about your steering geometry. A good shop will know that only the front toe-in is adjustable and will charge accordingly. Toyota solid axles don't have factory adjustments for caster or camber. These are rarely out of whack anyway. I beat the crap out of mine regularly and when I get it on the alignment rack it hasn't moved a bit.
I have bent the tie rod on my first 2 4Runners.

Its always a good idea to check things over after a particularly rough day of wheeling.

Also, you don't necessarily need an aftermarket wheel to get it centered. You can fine tune the wheel position by pulling the OE and moving it one or two splines. Or you can pull the steering shaft out of the steering gear and move it from there. After that, your adjustable drag link can be adjusted to get the wheel perfect. It takes a little trial and error to get it dead on.

After your adjustments, whatever you do, make sure you try it out on back roads or close to home/shop. If you didn't adjust it right you may lose steering radius and not be able to make a full u-turn in one direction and turn too sharply the other way. That could be embarrassing and dangerous in traffic.

If the steering wheel is way off from where it was but the toe-in is good then you might have twisted the sector shaft coming out of the steering gear or have a bent pitman arm.

Take a gander at the steering gear at the frame to make sure its still solidly attached and that the frame is intact/undamaged where they come together.

 

Thanks for the info...I didn't know there was so many factors that could be my problem, I guess I will look over the whole steering system and most likely just move the steering wheel - this is just a quick fix until I have the money and time for the cross over.
The reason it bugs me so much is everytime I turn the blinker will turn off cause the wheel is so off centered and it just looks like a pos.

 

Pulling the shaft out of the steering gear to center the wheel will fix the blinker.Pulling the steering wheel might. You'll probably see what I mean.

In my opinion its easier to pull the shaft than the wheel. If you have someone hold the wheel as you pull the shaft out of the steering gear its easy for them to put it where it needs to be and you can just reindex it (stab it back in).
Park it with the front tires pointed straight before you begin taking anything apart, whichever way you do it.

 

Ya pulling a steering wheel is a pain in the ass, so the shaft is the way to go....thanks for the info, If it's not snowing to bad after work I will take care of this but I am going wheeling in the snow sunday hopefully the wheel stays straight.