Hi,

I have a Safari '99 AWD which has the steering relay rod grinding up against the engine pulley when I pull the steering wheel to the left.

When the vehicle is jacked up in the front I can move this steering assembly all the way up to touch the back edge of the belt pulley causing the tires to toe in in the front (not sure if it's supposed to do that when jacked up).

My suspicion is that it's related to some front disc brake shake it had for a little while, which led me to replace the rotors and pads now.
The rotors/pads where replaced at 133,000 (late 2007) just for wear, and now again at 147,000 because I could not get rid of the wobble that started after the vehicle was sitting most of last winter. The van is not driven much and we do not use the brakes much at all. Every time I cleaned the rotors with emery cloth the problem was gone for a little while. The first rotors and pads were just the economy type and maybe the pads cause the problem with the brakes that's why I went for better rotors and pads this time.

The vehicle also has leaking shaft and pinion seals and the engine oil hoses need to be replaced. All the steering ball joint rubbers on the left side are quite oil covered.

But my question really is regarding the steering relay rod grinding against the pulley, if this has been observed before and what it means.

If you can move the relay rod up and down, there's a problem, most likely with the idler arms. Very common for them to wear, and when they do, that's the result. There should be no vertical movement of the relay rod. Any excessively worn steering linkage parts can also cause a brake pulsation to amplify. Replacing them is not difficult, just be sure that the relay rod is level with the chassis when you tighten the attaching bolts, (the mounting bolt holes are slightly oversize to allow for adjustment). Wheel alignment after the replacement is not mandatory. Provided the toe in was good before the idler arms were replaced, it will come back in to spec.

Thank you kindly for your reply!
If it's the idler arms then they are not lasting very long, as they were changed at 99.600 km when I bought the van. But I don't know if a quality brand was used for the repair. Also our roads up here are horrible at times and that may cause a lot of early steering component wear.

Moog problem solver chassis parts are usually very high quality. I would suggest that if you intend to keep the vehicle for any length of time, purchase idler arms with a lifetime warranty. Both my Astros have eaten idler arms regularly.