Alignment question

Help me understand an alignment issue.

I replaced the left tie rod end as the left wheel had a lot of slop and vehicle was pulling to the right. Wheel slop is gone, but still pulls slightly to the left.

Reading the reviews about the tie rod end and it's 1/8" shorter than stock.

What I did was crack the jam nut and unthread the OEM tie rod end and replaced the new all the way down.

Do I pop the end off and unscrew a few turns

or

crack the jam nut a turn the tie rod a few turns (in what direction?) ?

This is my ASE certifications speaking.
Put it on a rack and align it. A decent bump can upset an alignment. You live in Michigan, we have no decent bumps, they are all horrendous.
Toe in/out is a tire wear angle, it won't cause a pull. The only way you could argue that it does is if you have toe out on one side and an equal amout of toe in one the other. Holding the wheel straight will cause then car to turn.
I hope this makes sense, I just woke up.

Rotate the tires. Sometimes uneven wear can cause a pull. Like drboost says, toe cant cause a pull because it equalizes, the wheel will be off center but no pull. |\ doesnt happen because it ends up / \ with the wheel 10 degrees right. I'm assuming that you aligned the car after your tie rod replacement anyway. If not, align the car because it's necessary to regain your settings and not a bad thing to have sorted but don't expect it to fix your pull. Also, make sure your caliper slides are free, a pull can easily be caused by a dragging brake.

Setting the toe by guess an by gosh will likely result in tire wear.

Measuring toe is relatively easy. There are several ways.

As DrBoost said, there are other reasons for a pull. Also sesto e;emento.

Most cars have a caster offset to make the car drive slightly to the left, to offset the crown in the road. So depending on what kind of surface you are on the car may pull. There are so many things that can make a car pull its silly to try from this side of the keyboard. Especially since your vehicle has not had proper maintenance, and by the lack of clues provided by you for diagnosis.

Caster

Tire wear

Tire Inflation

Crossweight (loading)

Thrust angle

Rear toe

Lead/trail

I would suggest that since your vehicle has severely worn a steering part that there are other wear items. A 4 wheel alignment done by a competent technician will surely solve this conundrum. There is no top secret magic screw to turn. I know, its not the answer you were looking for. This is me, who has been down that road before, urging you to not cause further wear to your tires by waiting to seek professional assistance. An alignment is far cheaper than tires.

Toe will never cause a pull.

I have a feeling you are mistaking a pull for a left or right turn.

You at least have to get out the tape measure and get it close that way when messing with steering components, and even then it should see an alignment rack ASAP. Counting threads is just to get you in the ballpark.

FRONT "Toe will never cause a pull."

TIFTFY

Many IRS setups have rear steering (roll steer) built in and have toe or thrust adjustments and can cause a car to be most unpleasant to drive depending on which way which wheel is pointed and where the weight is from moment to moment.

Even a beam rear axle can be shimmed to change toe/thrust.

My point is not to smack Knurled with a ruler, but to shine light on the fact that the problem may not be in the front of the car.

Agreed with all the above. Front for will not cause a pull.

Caster will.

By pull, do you mean the wheel is off center when going straight? That's not a pull.

A pull is when you let go of the wheel on a straight non crowned road and the vehicle tries to turn.

1. Hands off wheel, it slowly goes right

2. Wheel was slightly off center, but I believe I have that straightened out.

3. Per request, I am replacing the other rod end and will take it too an alignment shop.

I was thinking it was pulling right as the one rod end was s.h.o.t. to the point I was surprised it was in one piece.