Broken tie rod while driving !

Looks like that truck plays in the wet dirt a lot. That means severe duty and needs grease more often then most.

 

Non paved roads beat up on parts harder then paved roads do so life expectancy of parts is lower.

 

Your listening for the tone, if it sounds llike a thud instead of a kind of ring tone its a defective part and may fail in use going do the road.

 

The ball joint of the tierod end should be very tight and difficult to move, if not its bad and needs to be changed, grease at that point is not going to fix the problem.

 

pics dont tell enough. could have been a catostrophic failure.

 

i like to use a rubber hammer when inspecting trucks. beat it on everything and listen to the sounds. if you do it al the time you will know the sounds of your truck. make sure to hit the brake cans too. i always grab the steering shaft with the engine off and give it some hard twists back and forth looking at all the steering parts.

 

Looks like the socket just wore out. I’ve always just checked them for movement while turning the wheel back and forth. Any slop shows up. I often turn the steering shaft by hand while watching the pitman, drag link, and tie rod end for play, same as a DOT Officer would. Passengers side Cant be seen though. Need 2 people. Maybe that’s how it got overlooked if it was sloppy. I think I’ll check mine using channel locks occasionally. Trucks a 2000, all original front end. I don’t have a problem with a easy moving joint, as long as there’s no slop or play. I’ve had a drag link go bad twice, on other Trucks. Each time I caught it right away, with minimal slop. I dare say, a tiny amount of slop could still pass a DOT inspection.