I left work to go to the doctor, and as I made a right turn (on to a very busy 4 lane) from the street the doctor's ofice is on, my truck continued to turn right, and almost caused me to have an accident in my pants.
I force the wheel to the left and pulled into the closest lot I could find.
I raised the hood and took a quick look around to find nothing.
I then looked underneath to see if something had broken. I was wondering how this was possible because I recently replaced the inner and outer tie rod ends on both sides, just because they are cheap and I thought they looked bad. Upon looking I found nothing.
I then called the wife to let her know I would be taking the side roads home, rather than driving the highway.
As I continued home, I heard no strange noises, however, everytime I made a right hand turn I had to force the wheel back to the left and it would continue to pull to the left, and then everytime I made a left hand turn, I had to force the wheel to the right, and it would pull right. (strange, I have never had this happen before)
I came home and had my wife get in so I could get under there with a creeper and look. I had her to start it up and I asked (you don't want to tell a woman to do anything) her to turn the wheel to one side.
I then heard, "The wheel wont turn any way." I got up and checked for myself, and sure enough I could not get the wheel to turn in either direction, I could hear the power steering pump kick as if it were going to but it was stuck like the steering lock when you turn the ignition off.
The wife had to leave for an appointment and I continued to try and turn the wheel to get nothing.
I then thought, what if I try to move the truck into the garage, to find out what is wrong, as I placed it in drive I let it roll forward and turned wheel to the left to head into the garage it went forward about a foot, there was a pop and the wheel turned, I thought well lets try this again, I then placed it in reverse and when it rolled back, it would not turn again.
I put it in the garage on jack stands and began to ponder the problem, I could start it and turn the wheel either direction with no problem.
I moved the front wheels to change the position of the tires to simulate the forward and reverse movements.
I then found my problem, the u-joints on the axle were binding up the steering.
I then consulted the threads on this forum, and had an idea of what I was about to get into.
After much dread of thinking I may have to take the front end apart and all the horror stories I read on this forum, I got started. Everything was going well until I took the manual hub off and noticed water in the bearings, then I noticed why, when I replaced the hubs a couple of months before, I neglected to put the seal around the new hub when I placed it on with the cap screws. Good thing I had the old ones because the parts store don't carry these.
The other problem was the spindle, when they are pressed on and had 14 years to rust to the steering knuckle, the are hard to get loose.
Anyway after getting the axles out, I replaced all the seals bearings and u-joints. I knew when I started to remove the joints that this was the real problem because every cap that came off was so dry all the needle bearing fell out, with the exception of 2, 1 had to be cut and opened like a walnut from all the rust, the other had the needle bearings worn flat from the movement inside wearing them down.
When things were re-assembled, I use excessive amounts of anti-seize lubricant between the knuckle and spindle.
I have to say everything is good now, thanks to the FTE forums.
I only would like to point out that I hadn't read in any of the forums that the steering problem would fix itself when the vehicle was in motion, and the problems will manifest itself in both 2 and 4 whell drive modes because the axle will turn a small amount even in 2 wheel mode because of the design.
So my hope is that this long post can help someone else that may have a problem diagnosing this problem.

 

Great job on the write up. Thank you for taking the time to do it. Glad to hear you are back on the road. Rep points coming your way for this.

 

My '95 does this and know I need to do the same thing.... about how long did the job take? I figure it may take me a weekend or two to do everything. Thanks for sharing...

 

It took me about 3.5 hours to do the first side, then about 1.5 to do the other. Once you do one it becomes much easier. I would gladly help someone in my area do this job, I have helped others with worse jobs.
I let a guy from work use the garage to change a transmission in a Ford Contour, because it was winter and this was his only car, but, he kept knocking on the door to ask so many questions, I finally went out there and done it myself. The worse part was it took up 4 days of him crowding up the garage, when he said he would have it done in a day. I learned my lesson on this one.