A day or two after installing T.F. 3 degree castor correcting radius arms I noticed my truck has been pulling to the right. I need to hold the steering wheel slightly off center to the left in order to track straight.

Just prior to installing the TF radius arms the I had the truck aligned and it tracked perfectly straight. I recently replaced all four tie rod ends (TF HD steering rods), pan hard rod, steering damper, and have newer tires. Practically, the front end is all but rebuilt.

I crawled under the truck for a gander and noticed the Passenger- Side lower ball joint boot was badly cracked. Could this be the issue. It's on the passenger side (right); the same side the truck wants to pull too? Or do you think I need another alignment due to the new castor correcting arms?

 

Mine is cracked pretty bad and doesn't pull to the right, if that helps..

 

yes; you changed your caster 3 degrees. your alignment is made up of toe in, toe out, caster and camber.
it may not be your problem with pulling but it should be realigned

 

My curiosity wants it back on the rack for comparaison sake. I want to see castor "before and after" numbers.

Un-related, but related. Just installed my poly rear sway bushes and went for ride to feel difference. I can hear clicking when turning and returning the wheel to straight. It's gotta be ball joints, right? Is there a definitive method of testing to see if they failed, besides pulling the joints and checking for play?

 

if its a BJ they should know as soon as it goes on the rack

 

I would prefer to diagnosis before paying to have it on the rack. Won't I need another alignment after replacing the BJ's?

 

I've decided to replace all four BJ's then, have it aligned. I figure it was aligned before with a bad ball joint probably skewing the numbers.

Install new ball joints then re-align. Seems like proper procedure to me.

 

I'll start by saying you cannot go wrong by doing the alignment again, but it's possible nothing will be gained. The only thing adjustable is toe, which shouldn't be affected much, if at all, by bad ball joints.


(This is assuming that you are talking about ball joints and not tierod ends)

 

Yup. Ball joints, not rod ends. They're all new. I can't seem to figure out why my alignment is off all the sudden. Before the radius arms were installed it was fine.

 

Go back and have the alignment rechecked. For the most part rotating the axle tube should not cause it to pull.
I would suggest if you are going to this extent to fix your steering then add a ajustable pan hard rod so you can pull you axle back to center