steering hard as F*ck

[movementality]

so i'm relatively newb when it comes to actually working on the e30 so bear with me here :)
I swapped in the e36 steering rack a buddy gave me and said bye bye to PS so obviously steering effort is going to be harder which is fine. the stock e30 tie rods on my car were beaten to death so i opted to install the e36 steering rack with the tie rods still on it.
the steering effort wasn't bad at all but turned out the ball joints on the e36 rack were dead too. so i ordered new e30 tie rods and e36 locking plates and e90 spring hats for shits and giggles.

today i replaced the tie rods and those drop hats.
and now the steering is heavy as HELL! i ripped my control arm ball joint on the driver's side so i have new control arms and the works on the way.
would that effect it at all?

any idea of what went wrong?
thanks r3v

[Philo]

You need an alignment. When you install new tie rods, the alignment changes and can make it terribly hard to steer.

[movementality]

thanks!
when i still had the e36 tie rods on, i had visibly noticeable amount of toe-in
does it make sense that now i might have toe-out and it makes it much harder to steer?

[KenC]

Did you remember to put the thick washer between the spring hat and the strut mount?

[movementality]

yeah i made sure i put everything back together the way it came apart i did accidentally bend the thin washer on the driver's side though... would that have any effect?

[AndrewBird]

Is it hard to turn the wheel with the wheels off the ground? If it is, something is up with your strut mounts/bearings.

But an alignment could cause stiff steering I suppose.

[dnova89]

Also don't forget to cut that firewall plate a little bigger to clear the new position of the rubber boot of where it connects behind the steering wheel. The e36 rack will sit a little higher and result in that boot to get caught in the hole. It doesn't add much resistance but I can feel it with PS, so I'd imagine it might be a little more noticeable for you. Just a thought.

[Matt-B]

loosen nut in strut mounts, then try steering

[movementality]

thanks guys, i've tried loosening the nut and everything the rack still feels spring loaded... it's really tough past 20 degrees in either direction
on the plus side i'm getting a work out lol

so i drove over two plastic trays (under both front wheels for less tire/pavement friction) and yanked the steering wheel all the way to right and it literally springs back... I feel like the spring hat and the strut mount is binding or something? is that possible?
bearings in the strut mounts perhaps?

[Philo]

How much fluid did you leave in the rack and what method did you use to 'delete' the PS?

[movementality]

no fluid, but i had already bought one of those delete blocks, so i slapped that on there to keep stuff out.
took off belt, pump, reservoir, and all the lines that ran between them.