Steering rack grinding on my s13

[Crunkrich]

When I was installing my new dash I lowered the steering wheel and column and let it rest on the driver seat. Then when we were were pullin the dash my friend leaned a lot of weight on the wheel and it sounded like the gears skipped over each other down where the column meets the steering rack. Then two days later after nothing being wrong the steering wheel got stuck about at about halfway of the wheels being fully turned. I had to force it to turn it further and I could hear something like gears grindin over each other. But then when I was parking it didnt make any noise or grinding. So far its done it a couple times... kinda scaring the crap outta me every time it happens. Was it possible that it stripped a gear down there or anyone have any other ideas what happened?

[pmkls2]

i would check the joints in the steering shaft first it is more likely that the shaft got messed up than the rack itself. the only problem is that the steering shaft is hard to get to from under the car. even with it on a lift it is hard to see. anyhow i would start with inspecting the shaft first