Did I blow a tie rod?

About 500 miles ago, I did lower ball joints (OEM) and inner and outer tie rods (Moog). Everything was buttoned down and torqued properly and had no issues for the first couple of weeks.

The other day, I crawled under the truck to replace a bushing and I saw that my passenger side outer tie rod is canted at a weird angle - even with the wheel straight and level. It looks like this:



For comparison, this is how my driver's side looks:



There is no weirdness in driving, undue noise, or issues with steering. The only thing that has been unusual since getting the lbjs and tie rods on was a few days ago I was driving down the street about 25 mph and heard a single 'pop'. I immediately worried that my lbj bolts had come loose but then figured that it was an acorn or rock hitting the truck from the trees I was driving under. Later that day, I noticed the passenger side tie rod.

Anyway, is this normal or did I blow my tie rod?

 

No that's completely normal. You will know if you blew your tie rod ends.

 

Nope. Perfectly normal

 

Thanks guys!

 

good to know, my drivers side looks exactly the same!

 

The lock nut on the tie rod was tightened before the tie rod end was level.

 

You may want to put some little rubber cap guys on the grease fittings.

 

if you squeeze on the tie rod ends with large channel locks it should not have alot of play on heavy duty trucks the exceptible limit is 1 8th inch dont know light duty though