Strange behavior after installing new steering boots and tie rod ends

[PieEyedPiper]

I just replaced my boots and tie rod ends today and when I put everything back together and drove the car up and down the street, just to park it, the steering felt very strange.
I don't mean just a little different, I mean that the car barely even turns at full steering lock. I also noticed that the steering, what little there was, was effortless. Not just easier, more like lifting helium filled balloons.

Now a couple bits of info:
-The toe settings are likely all whacked out, even though I carefully counted the threads.
-I used a moog tie rod end on a cheapy ITE (inner tie rod end) and the original tie rod end was a matching part to the cheap ITE. I would imagine that it's possible that the coming together of these parts could produce different results that may entirely negate my thread counting.
-I noticed that only the driver's side ITE had any movement, not the bad kind where there is play in the joint itself, but have you ever played with a brand spanking new ITE? They're stiff as a rock. Only He-man could get that part to "swivel" around. It's this "swivel" or articulation that seems more abundant. The tie rod is not strong enough to support it's own weight without succumbing to gravity. The Passenger side , while easily articulated, did not exhibit this.
-I only made left turns, didn't test behavior turning the opposite direction.

And that's all I got! I'd like to think I'm fairly well versed in the suspension "goings on" of these cars but this is the first time I've personally done any work on the steering components and I guess I was just startled at the result.
The car is going in for an alignment tomorrow AM and I'm sure they'll get me all fixed up, assuming this is just a whacky symptom of whacky toe settings.

But would someone maybe comment on their own experiences to put my mind at ease?

 

[TheMadCheshire]

Because of my job, I have put on many tie rods of many different brands. Even if you did count the threads, it will never be perfect. In fact, its usually way out anyways, especially if something is loose. We used to do alignments for another shop that did not have an alignment machine and sometimes when they would replace parts, the tie rods would be on maybe a few threads and the car either fell into turns, hated turning, or just felt too wacky.
Hopefully the alignment fixes you all up. The only other thing I can think of is if you got the wrong inner tie rods. Did you compare them to the old ones? same size? were the outers the same? I can't imagine these cars have a left and right specific ends, but thats a possibility. Check the part numbers to verify that.

 

[PieEyedPiper]

Your comments make perfect sense. Only the outers were replaced, the inners we replaced some time ago and had been working fine. I'm sure its just the alignment, but now I'm tweaking on how to drive the car there and its only 4 blocks! I'll let you know how it turns out, thanks for the response.

After the alignment everything was great, though steering effort is still on the low side. Perhaps part of Moog's "our part delivers the best quality and turning response etc etc..."?
Anyways, thanks again for commenting. You were spot on.

The alignment, however, is not. I asked for -1* camber up front and they gave me -0.1*. Their response was "Are you serious, you really think you're going to notice the difference?!?". Not a pleasant experience but that's a rant for another day.