Broken Frame?

[Tom Mandera <tsm1@domain.elided>]

I want to hear from someone that has had a cracked frame @ the steering box..

That darned "clunk" is back again.. it had all but gone away, while 
running my 235/75s.. I put my 31s back on last weekend to go play in the 
snow, and that clunk is back with a vengeance..

Anytime I shift from turning left to turning right (or straightening 
out), it clunks.

Bounce up the curb, it clunks.

On a related/unrelated note, my Scout also pulls right or left, 
depending.. haven't figured out WHY or what makes it choose right or 
left, but I find myself holding the wheel a little to one side..

Again, might be related, while wheeling the steering acted funny.  Going 
through some "S"s in the snow ruts, I would just jerk the wheel back and 
forth to do my best to turn the wheels, but I had no idea how they were 
pointed, without poking my head outside.  Granted, it IS power steering..

At another point, I was in some deep snow, and tried to turn the wheel.. 
I could turn it so far, and then the "power" stopped.. I was trying to 
turn the tires left into the snow-rut.  The wheel was full left until I 
ran out of "power assist", but the tires were still straight.. I then 
tried to do a little ArmStrong, which still didn't turn the tires any 
farther.

I'm starting to wonder if my clunk is a cracked frame that keeps flexing, 
or maybe just loose bolts.  A quick look doesn't show me anything, but I 
haven't spent some quality time under there yanking and poking yet, either..

So, was your frame cracked?  What were the symptoms?

-Tom Mandera, Helena MT
http://www.tmcom.com/~tsm1/scout
'72 and '77 Scout IIs