Since I've been driving my truck -nearly two years now- I've noticed that when crossing over to the shoulder of a road, either for a stop or just a I quick pass over it, my truck tends to jerk towards the right some, bad front tires was the reason that crossed my mind, yet I have let it slip for a while... but the road I take for my daily commute is being scraped and repaved, and I have noticed that when driving over these areas my truck tends to jerk left or right some more; last week while crossing over from a section of scraped pavement to one recently repaved, my truck jerked right abruptly making me turn the wheel left to straighten the truck, it was a bit scary... fortunately no car was on the right lane, cuz I think it would had been a close call... on a recent post to a LR Group on Facebook, some of the answers I received were bad ball joints or steering damper, some even mentioned the panhard bar... so I got under the truck to see and checked the ball joints and saw that the rubber boots had been completely eroded, so decided it was the culprit and bought today the 4-set to have them replaced by my mechanic... he lifted the truck, tried to wobble the wheel, it didn't move enough to show a prob, unmounted the wheel and even though he saw the rubber parts of the ball joints pretty much eroded, he determined they weren't bad, he moved things around, and pretty much gave it a clean bill of health and recommended not to change the ball joints cuz they were still good... things were put back together, truck lowered and recommended to have it aligned... so I went to have it aligned and the guy asked what was wrong, but determined from my explanation that it couldn't be alignment the issue, anyways he lifted it, wiggled things around and also determined that everything seems to be in placed, so recommended not to align it cuz if the prob persisted I would come back saying he did his job wrong, but he suggested that sometimes changing the steering damper would solve the issue... thing is that no-one was able to determine what the culprit of this erratic left/right movement might really be... I don't think both guys are turning down a job for the sake of it, both are people I know and wouldn't want to take money from me for nothing... he said that he can't change a part for the sake of it, he must know it will fix the prob, so he thinks that the ball joints being as they are, aren't the culprit... he recently replaced the front right caliper since I've been having braking probs, and recommended that I replaced the left one soon to correct the braking towards the right that also has... since he knows that it does that, he suggested that I stepped on the brakes when crossing over the paved/unpaved area thus making the car jerk to the right as it did, but I don't recall that, I was going over 60 and crossing lanes, no reason to brake... I showed him that there is a fairly reasonable amount of oil impregnating the steering box and its surrounding, but he assures me it isn't from it, it must be motor oil being leaked from somewhere else, he'll look into it next weekend... but I am still having the issue, on my drive back home I took a pretty good road and you can feel the truck slightly change directions left/right, sometimes more noticeable than others... Attached you will see detail pics of the LH & RH sides where you will see the state of the ball joints and sway bar links, also a pic of the oil impregnated steering box... your inputs will be very much appreciated!

 

Seems I recall that on some suspension setups you need to support the vehicle with a stand or jack under the lower ball joint and then try moving the wheel assembly. That puts the ball joint in it's normal operating position which is when the wear will show up.

Th missing rubber boots could allow dirt and contaminants into the joint and make it wear out sooner, and especially with the 'greased for life' joints, would be particularly bad. I would apply grease often and change them when you can., but that is just my opinion.

I was told the vibration dampner does very little and won't cause a vibration or wheel shimmy. But a sudden jerk like you mention could be exactly what it is supposed to help with.

 

...thanks for your input "jimvw57", that was exactly the answer my mechanic gave me when I insisted that the rubber boot was eroded and in my mind it should be changed, but he said it was the protection for what's inside, that without it will dirty things up, but that they seem to be working fine, anyways I will ask him about your jack-positioning suggestion to recheck them. As per the damper, I recall being told that replacing it with a new one might hide the problem if the damper isn't the culprit, but I've been wanting to replace it, as much as the boot-eroded ball joints that seem to be working fine. Thanks again for your input! ;-}#

 

Damper will definitely make some improvement. But keep in mind different road surfaces have different traction (paved/ scraped/ dirt shoulder) specially when different height, so when u put lets say right side tires on dirt shoulder and it drops at least a couple of inches in any vehicle u better hold on to steering tight, or it will pull, it will happen in any car or truck, some more some less, as for scrape roads, tires want to follow the grooves , so yes it will go left or right following the grooves in roan it's natural, (off-road tires follow grooves a little less than street tires, new tires also follow grooves more than bold tires).
We're u driving with one hand on steering very loosely when it pulled suddenly to right? I don't think it would have pulled as much when u have both hands on wheel and holding it tight. As far as your mechanic's I believe they are being very honest, not trying to change or perform/ charge u for for something that is not necessary.

 

...I guess you're right "Bom2oo2", my front tyres are very up for replacement, rear ones are a couple months new, reason why I'll be switching them when replacing the damper in hopes for the issue to go away or lessen until finding the real culprit, and I do concur with you regarding my mechanics. Thanks for your input!