Need help from 99-04 Dakota/Durango 4x4 owners

I'm trying to sort out the frame issues with my 02 Dakota. The front crossmember (holding the steering rack and front of LCAs) on my truck hit a dirt pile when the previous owner got pushed off the road. I will post some pictures when I get daylight, but I'm curious if you could go look at yours and answer some questions.

1) bolts for the steering rack mount... are they parallel to the ground or do they angle up a little?

2) Looking at the place where the front of the LCAs mount, is the steel of the crossmember straight up and down, or does it have a little dogleg to it?

Right now my steering wheel is off by 45 degrees, I have some pretty good bumpsteer, and the turning of the wheel has "lumps" (inconsistent effort) in it when you turn it. The lumps suggest that the u-joint in the steering shaft is too angled, but its really hard to tell.

I'm trying to determine if I just need someone to blindly yank on the crossmember to get the steering rack back in line or if there are more subtle issues that need to be addressed.

Pics tomorrow.

P.S. On a good note, today I hit CL for some parts I've been needing. The Dakota needs a passenger door. After passing up several $200 junkyard options that needed paint match, I found one in the same color 30 miles away. When I got there, not only was it perfect, but it already had a ventshade installed on it (so i don't have to move mine over) but by a 1/150,000 shot, it uses the SAME KEY. $50. THEN, about 10 miles from me, a guy had two new fenders for my Impala, plus a mostly complete interior trim including dash and I snagged the whole lot for $75. Now I need to find a door for the Impala and start digging in.

I ran outside to take some pics for you off my '03 Durango.

Here are the LCAs.

Left Side

Right Side

I didn't get any pictures of the steering rack, but the two giant studs that old it on are parallel to the ground.

Steering off could just be a tweaked knuckle. Or fragged ball joints, Dakotas have always had very low ball joint life expectancy.

The binding is rather common especially on Fords and Toyota cars. The U-joints just rust solid. If this happened right after the off-road excursion, personally I'd look more at the body mounts. The frame is really tough and the body mounts would get bent before the frame would anyway.

Cripes, that's an understatement. Especially if you go back to Chrysler to get them replaced. I twigged to that fact pretty early on, and only have Moogs.

I'm doing a parts cleanup, what else do you need? I've gotten rid of most of the good stuff, but still have a few things around (stock headlights, V6 computer, stock cam & lifters, most of a wiring harness and an extra set of gauges.)

The front crossmember on mine got whacked and I'm trying to figure out how badly. Is it just the middle where the rack is, is it the whole thing, did I bend/crack LCAs? I need to get out and get pictures and also measure from a reference point to the lower ball joints. I think the one side is back about 3/4".

I'm trying to determine what it needs before taking it to a frame shop. Of course they'll say that it needs a laser reference, full measure, etc, and then $1500 later they'll put a chain on it and spend 15 minutes yanking on it because it was something simple.