I recently bought a 2000 dodge Dakota, the owner before him had these lifts done and the steering shaft was extended by adding another joint, welding it to the frame with an I-bolt and then running to the rack, after putting about 3000 miles on it after taking it through some mud and a car wash the steering the the left side only is awful, I replaced the rack, replaced tie rods, ball joints are good, steering is still awful to the left side, catches, hard to turn and will not return. Very lost here, looking for some major assistance from others who have had to extend their steering shaft.

 

One of your u-joints dry and worn?

 

Have someone turn the wheel back and forth while you watch the steering shaft in operation. You should be able to see what is binding up. Not really sure why they would have welded something to the frame for the steering shaft unless they had to go around something to make it work, and if that's the case then that is the likely culprit especially if the welded piece isn't strong enough to stay solid when the steering wheel is turned. There's a helluva lot of force going through a steering column, and a side-mounted joint has to be much, much stronger due to the magic of leverage. Unless it was jacked up to the moon, just extending the shaft with perhaps a full size truck steering shaft should have worked fine. Worse comes to worse, go find an offroading forum and get advice there. Pirate4x4, if you don't mind crude language, is loaded with folks who put lift kits on their rigs measured in feet, not inches, and can likely solve the problem. But, both here or another forum, pictures showing what you're dealing with would be helpful.