Welcome to FYIFORD.
I had the opposite problem with mine when I first got it. But, there were mitigating circumstances. I bought mine from a guy that had a race car shop, and he had the rack mounted to a display car in the showroom, but never driven. He sold it to me on ebay, and then declared bankruptcy before he shipped it. Long story made short, some lawyer threats got him to ship the rack, but I think he screwed around with the bias adjustment screws so the rack was nearly undriveable when I got it. You could turn the wheel and let go and it would keep turning until it went to full lock. I finally got the instructions and some TCP help and got it adjusted, and it is fine to this day.
That said, have you tried backing out the bias adjustment screws a half turn to see what changes? You need to do both of them the same amount or the car will pull to one side. Those are the allen head setscrews on the input shaft right before it enters the rack gearbox.
I had a friend that installed a (different brand) R&P on his 66 and the mickey mouse u-joint system they sent him would put things big time into a bind, where you had to have alot of muscle power to turn the steering wheel. Do your shaft u-joints move freely? I can't see how that would be heat related, but worth looking at. Does your steering column have a lower ballbearing in it to keep the shaft centered?
I know it is pretty difficult to get the rack mounted with all four bolts and have it where it still is in a straight line without being bent while tightening the bolts. I took quite a long time adding shims to get the rack where it was mounted without it being in a bind. But mine never had the problem yours is having.
If it was mine, I would try to eliminate the source of the problem "scientifically" for lack of a better word. First, remove the bolts going through the lower control arm bushings and leave the rack unbolted from that position. Reinstall some LCA bolts so the car can be driven, but without the rack being bolted to them. That will eliminate two sources of binding, with the rack still attached to the frame rails. You should be able to carefully drive the car in the neghborhood at slow speeds to test it, or have it on jackstands under the LCAs.. By no means head out on a busy street or freeway. Get it hot and see if that eliminates the binding condition.
If it still binds, then you need to loosen the passenger side frame mount so the rack is still supported but not tightened. Then it will only be held tight by the driver side bolts. At this point, I think I would have the car with jackstands under the front ball joint area to holt the car up off the ground. With it warmed up, did the binding go away? If it did, then you have some alignment problem with bolting the rack tight to the car. It is a balancing act to get all the shims installed so the rack aligns without binding up. Be sure to have jackstands under the balljoint area of the LCA to simulate the loads the car will have sitting on its wheels, or use a four post lift so the car IS sitting on its wheels before you tighten up the rack.
If that did not change anything, then I would suspect there is some tolerance issue or a bent part internally. The only solution for that is to send it to TCP and let them check it out.
One design issue I did run into was on the tie rod adjusting sleeves. The clamp bolts on the sleeves would hit the rack tube on sharp turns. That was corrected by installing some billet adjusting sleeves that have a jam nut at each end, eliminating the clamp bolts.
Other than that, mine has performed flawlessly for about 40,000 miles, having been on the car since 2005.
Whatever happens, please post the outcome of your problem. It will be good info to have on file.
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