New ball joints, steering wont return to center

[west chevy hd]

I replaced the upper arms w/ball joints and my lower ball joints with duralast ball joints myself. It developed a memory steer problem immediately afterwards. I took it to have aligned and it still had the problem. Took it back same problem. Took it to another alignment shop, same problem. If im driving on the highway and go to change lanes or turn the wheel won't return to center. It makes it scary to drive. Only thing that was changed was the ball joints. Everything else is perfect and has been checked by 2 different shops.

 

Do these cheaper ball joints need time to break in or something? Its been almost 5000 miles on them already. Also, before someone asks if i over torqued them, i didnt, and also there is no way to over torque the joints that would make them stiffer. Its a tapered shaft and over tightening would only try to pull the taper shaft not the joint itself.

[txab]

You don't mention what year vehicle. One thing..... did you "clock" the upper ball joint correctly in the arm? It is to be be installed in a specific orientation.

[west chevy hd]

sorry 2008 silverado 1500 4x4 with a leveling kit. The uppers were already installed on the new arms.

[west chevy hd]

2008 Silverado 4x4 4-door 2.5 in level kit brand new ball joints.

Ive posted a few times about this problem and had thoughts that it was just the new ball joints sticking causing my no return to center. Well it was warm enough this weekend to test some stuff out.

I pulled the front wheels and removed the tie rods. The knuckles spun back and forth easily. So the ball joints are fine. Ive had this thing aligned 3 times by 3 different shops. I even installed some offset uca bushings to give me more adjustment. Still this truck wont return all the way back to center between the 11 and 1 o'clock position. So if im on the highway and after a turn it will still keep going that way unless i manually steer it straight. If its i big turn it will come back close to center but still not all the way.

It never did this before. Last summer i installed a 2.5 level kit and went up one size in tires. I also replaced all the ball joints.

Here is my alignment specs.

LEFT RANGE

CAMBER -0.7 TO 0.5

mine= 0.2

CASTOR 2.7 TO 4.7

mine = 3.2

TOE -0.05 TO 0.15

mine= 0.00

RIGHT RANGE

CAMBER -0.7 TO 0.5

mine= -0.4

CASTOR 2.4 TO 4.4

mine = 3.0

TOE -0.05 TO 0.15

mine= 0.08

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Hey, did you ever fix this? I have a 2015 Silverado 1500 that's doing the exact same thing. It just started happening one day. Did a bunch of alignments. A bunch of mechanics told me to replace rack, so I did, but that didn't fix it.

 

Thanks!